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Podospora anserina target of rapamycin

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Abstract

We have isolated the Podospora anserina TOR gene. The PaTOR protein displayed strong identities with TOR proteins from other eukaryotes especially in the FRB domain and the kinase domain. Genome analysis suggests that a single TOR gene exists in Podospora. The serine residue known to be one site of missense mutations conferring rapamycin resistance in other organisms is conserved in the PaTOR protein (S1895). A PaTOR-S1895R mutated allele has been constructed and introduced in the wild-type strain, as expected strains expressing the PaTOR-S1895R gene become resistant to rapamycin. The dominance of the PaTOR-S1895R allele indicates that apparently the mutation does not impair the kinase activity. We confirm that all cytological modifications associated with rapamycin treatment in Podospora are indeed mediated by PaTOR. We conclude that the PaTOR gene is likely to be essential and that rapamycin treatment might be useful to further investigate rapamycin-sensitive TOR functions in Podospora and especially newly identified rapamycin-sensitive functions such as the autophagy-independent control of vacuole remodeling and septation.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Sven J. Saupe for helpful discussions and for critical reading of the manuscript. This work was supported by the European Commission (Transdeath—Contract #511983). BPL was a recipient of a fellowship from the Ministère de la Recherche and from the Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale (FRM).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire de Génétique Moléculaire des Champignons, Institut de Biochimie et de Génétique Cellulaires, UMR 5095 CNRS et Université de Bordeaux 2, 1 rue Camille Saint-Saëns, 33077, Bordeaux cedex, France

    Bérangère Pinan-Lucarré, Ismaïl Iraqui & Corinne Clavé

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  1. Bérangère Pinan-Lucarré
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  2. Ismaïl Iraqui
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  3. Corinne Clavé
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Correspondence to Corinne Clavé.

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Communicated by J. Heitman

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Pinan-Lucarré, B., Iraqui, I. & Clavé, C. Podospora anserina target of rapamycin. Curr Genet 50, 23–31 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00294-006-0064-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00294-006-0064-3

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