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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, July 2006, p. 4917-4922, Vol. 72, No. 7
0099-2240/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.02845-05
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Modification of Sexual Development and Carotene Production by Acetate and Other Small Carboxylic Acids in Blakeslea trispora and Phycomyces blakesleeanus

Vera Kuzina and Enrique Cerdá-Olmedo*

Departamento de Genética, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Sevilla, E-41080 Sevilla, Spain

Received 2 December 2005/ Accepted 11 April 2006

In Phycomyces blakesleeanus and Blakeslea trispora (order Mucorales, class Zygomycetes), sexual interaction on solid substrates leads to zygospore development and to increased carotene production (sexual carotenogenesis). Addition of small quantities of acetate, propionate, lactate, or leucine to mated cultures on minimal medium stimulated zygospore production and inhibited sexual carotenogenesis in both Phycomyces and Blakeslea. In Blakeslea, the threshold acetate concentration was <1 mmol/liter for both effects, and the concentrations that had one-half of the maximal effect were <2 mmol/liter for carotenogenesis and >7 mmol/liter for zygosporogenesis. The effects on Phycomyces were similar, but the concentrations of acetate had to be multiplied by ca. 3 to obtain the same results. Inhibition of sexual carotenogenesis by acetate occurred normally in Phycomyces mutants that cannot use acetate as a carbon source and in mutants whose dormant spores cannot be activated by acetate. Small carboxylic acids may be signals that, independent of their ability to trigger spore germination in Phycomyces, modify metabolism and development during the sexual cycle of Phycomyces and Blakeslea, uncoupling two processes that were thought to be linked and mediated by a common mechanism.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Departamento de Genética, Facultad de Biología, Apartado 1095, E-41080 Sevilla, Spain. Phone: 0034-954624107. Fax: 0034-954557104. E-mail: eco{at}us.es.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, July 2006, p. 4917-4922, Vol. 72, No. 7
0099-2240/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.02845-05
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





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