RT Journal Article SR Electronic(1) A1 Jiang, Ping A1 Wei, Wen-fan A1 Zhong, Guo-wei A1 Zhou, Xiao-gang A1 Qiao, Wei-ran A1 Fisher, Reinhard A1 Lu, LingYR 2017 T1 The function of the three phosphoribosyl pyrophosphate synthetase (Prs) genes in hyphal growth and conidiation in Aspergillus nidulans JF Microbiology, VO 163 IS 2 SP 218 OP 232 DO https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.000427 PB Microbiology Society, SN 1465-2080, AB Phosphoribosyl pyrophosphate synthetase, which is encoded by the Prs gene, catalyses the reaction of ribose-5-phosphate and adenine ribonucleotide triphosphate (ATP) and has central importance in cellular metabolism. However, knowledge about how Prs family members function and contribute to total 5-phosphoribosyl-α-1-pyrophosphate (PRPP) synthetase activity is limited. In this study, we identified that the filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans genome contains three PRPP synthase-homologous genes (AnprsA, AnprsB and AnprsC), among which AnprsB and AnprsC but not AnprsA are auxotrophic genes. Transcriptional expression profiles revealed that the mRNA levels of AnprsA, AnprsB and Anprs C are dynamic during germination, hyphal growth and sporulation and that they all showed abundant expression during the vigorous hyphal growth time point. Inhibiting the expression of AnprsB or AnprsC in conditional strains produced more effects on the total PRPP synthetase activity than did inhibiting AnprsA, thus indicating that different AnPrs proteins are unequal in their contributions to Prs enzyme activity. In addition, the constitutive overexpression of AnprsA or AnprsC could significantly rescue the defective phenotype of the AnprsB-absent strain, suggesting that the function of AnprsB is not a specific consequence of this auxotrophic gene but instead comes from the contribution of Prs proteins to PRPP synthetase activity., UL https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.000427