Trichoderma reesei sequences that bind to the nuclear matrix enhance transformation frequency

Three DNA fragments, trs1, 2 and 3, were isolated from the Trichoderma reesei genome on the basis of their ability to promote autonomous replication of plasmids in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Each trs element bound specifically to the isolated T. reesei nuclear matrix in vitro, and two of them bound in vivo, indicating that they are matrix attachment regions (MARs). A similar sequence previously isolated from Aspergillus nidulans (ans1) was also shown to bind specifically to the T. reesei nuclear matrix in vitro. The T. reesei MARs are AT-rich sequences containing 70%, 86% and 73% A+T over 2.9, 0.8 and 3.7 kb, respectively for trs1, 2 and 3. They exhibited no significant sequence homology, but were shown to contain a number of sequence motifs that occur frequently in many MARs identified in other eukaryotes. However, these motifs occurred as frequently in the trs elements as in randomly generated sequences with the same A+T content. trs1 and 3 were shown to be present as single copies in the T. reesei genome. The presence of the trs elements in transforming plasmids enhanced the frequency of integrative transformation of T. reesei up to five fold over plasmids without a trs. No evidence was obtained to suggest that the trs elements promoted efficient replication of plasmids in T. reseei. A mechanism for the enhancement of transformation frequency by the trs elements is proposed. Received: 1 March 1997 / Accepted: 13 May 1997     

Production and purification of a granular-starch-binding domain of glucoamylase 1 from Aspergillus niger

A domain of glucoamylase 1 from Aspergillus niger which binds to granular starch was produced by proteolytic digestion and purified to apparent homogeneity by extraction with corn starch followed by anion-exchange chromatography and gel filtration. The peptide has a molecular weight of 25,100, contains approximately 38% carbohydrate (w/w) and corresponds to residues 471-616 at the C-terminus of glucoamylase 1. The peptide bound to granular corn starch maximally at 1.08 nmol/mg starch. It inhibited the hydrolysis of granular starch by glucoamylase 1 but had no effect on the hydrolysis of starch in solution.     

Revisiting the use of Iprodione and Trichoderma in the integrated management of onion white rot

The biocontrol properties of Trichoderma species are well documented, but their effectiveness in antagonism of the problematic Sclerotium cepivorum, the causal agent of white rot in Allium species, appears limited with reports of significant control only relating to deliberately-mutated strains of Trichoderma. Our previous studies have indicated the possibility of using selected naturally-occurring strains of the antagonist in the suppression of other diseases; now in vitro and controlled environment in vivo studies have indicated that a degree of control of Onion White Rot is possible, and that the selected antagonist strains can be used in integrated treatments with Iprodione to good effect. The possible value of such treatments is considered in light of other approaches to the suppression of this continuing problem.     

The phylogenetic analysis of variable-length sequence data: elongation factor-1alpha introns in European populations of the parasitoid wasp genus Pauesia (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Aphidiinae)

Elongation factor-1alpha (EF-1alpha) is a highly conserved nuclear coding gene that can be used to investigate recent divergences due to the presence of rapidly evolving introns. However, a universal feature of intron sequences is that even closely related species exhibit insertion and deletion events, which cause variation in the lengths of the sequences. Indels are frequently rich in evolutionary information, but most investigators ignore sites that fall within these variable regions, largely because the analytical tools and theory are not well developed. We examined this problem in the taxonomically problematic parasitoid wasp genus Pauesia (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Aphidiinae) using congruence as a criterion for assessing a range of methods for aligning such variable-length EF-1alpha intron sequences. These methods included distance- and parsimony-based multiple-alignment programs (CLUSTAL W and MALIGN), direct optimization (POY), and two "by eye" alignment strategies. Furthermore, with one method (CLUSTAL W) we explored in detail the robustness of results to changes in the gap cost parameters. Phenetic-based alignments ("by eye" and CLUSTAL W) appeared, under our criterion, to perform as well as more readily defensible, but computationally more demanding, methods. In general, all of our alignment and tree-building strategies recovered the same basic topological structure, which means that an underlying phylogenetic signal remained regardless of the strategy chosen. However, several relationships between clades were sensitive both to alignment and to tree-building protocol. Further alignments, considering only sequences belonging to the same group, allowed us to infer a range of phylogenetic relationships that were highly robust to tree-building protocol. By comparing these topologies with those obtained by varying the CLUSTAL parameters, we generated the distribution area of congruence and taxonomic compatibility. Finally, we present the first robust estimate of the European Pauesia phylogeny by using two EF-1alpha introns and 38 taxa (plus 3 outgroups). This estimate conflicts markedly with the traditional subgeneric classification. We recommend that this classification be abandoned, and we propose a series of monophyletic species groups.     

A web server to locate periodicities in a sequence

Summary : FT is a tool written in C++, which implements the Fourier analysis method to locate periodicities in aminoacid or DNA sequences. It is provided for free public use on a WWW server with a Java interface. Availability : The server address is http://o2.db. uoa.gr/FT Contact : shamodr@atlas.uoa.gr      

Ligand-regulated peptide aptamers that inhibit the 5'-AMP-activated protein kinase

In an effort to extend the peptide aptamer approach, we have developed a scaffold protein that allows small molecule ligand control over the presentation of a peptide aptamer. This scaffold, a fusion of three protein domains, FKBP12, FRB, and GST, presents a peptide linker region for target protein binding only in the absence of the small molecule Rapamycin or other non-immunosuppressive Rapamycin derivatives. Here we describe the characterization of ligand-regulated peptide aptamers that interact with and inhibit the 5'-AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK). AMPK, a central regulator of cellular energy homeostasis, responds to high cellular AMP/ATP ratios by promoting energy producing pathways and inhibiting energy consuming biosynthetic pathways. We have characterized 15 LiRPs of similar, poly-basic sequence and have determined that they interact with the substrate peptide binding region of both AMPK alpha1 and alpha2. These proteins, some of which serve as poor substrates of AMPK, inhibit the kinase as pseudosubstrates in a Rapamycin-regulated fashion in vitro, an effect that is largely competitive with substrate peptide and mediated by an increase in the kinase's apparent K(m) for substrate peptide. This pseudosubstrate inhibition of AMPK by LiRP proteins reduced the AMP stimulation of AMPK in vitro and caused the inhibited state of the kinase to kinetically resemble the basal, unstimulated state of AMPK, providing potential insight into the molecular mechanisms of AMP stimulation of AMPK.