Methylammonium resistance in Aspergillus nidulans

Abstract

Mutants of Aspergillus nidulans resistant to methylammonium toxicity are simultaneously derepressed in the presence of ammonium for apparently all ammonium-repressible activities. Enzyme assays directly demonstrate derepression of nitrate, nitrite, and hydroxylamine reductases, xanthine dehydrogenase, urate oxidase, and allantoinase, whereas in vivo tests show that ammonium and methylammonium repression or inhibition (or both) is relieved in these mutants in pathways of nitrate assimilation, purine transport and degradation, and amino acid, amine, and amide catabolism. Ammonium and methylammonium uptake is apparently not defective in these mutants, for they grow normally on limiting levels of these ions as sole nitrogen source. There is no evidence that more than one gene can mutate to produce the methylammonium resistance (mea(R)) phenotype. Such mutations are semidominant in both heterocaryons and diploids. The ability of mea(R) mutations to effect derepression of activities specified by genes within another nucleus in a heterocaryon shows that the action of the mea product is not restricted to the nucleus. Three types of hypotheses might explain this generalized derepression. First, ammonium and methylammonium might not themselves be co-repressors but might require a metabolic conversion, blocked in these mutants, to become co-repressors. Secondly, the mea locus might specify an activity expressed in mea(R) but not wild-type (mea(S)) strains, which diminishes the concentration of ammonium and methylammonium participating in co-repression. Finally, ammonium repression might involve a macromolecular control element specified by the mea(R) locus and common to many or all ammonium-repressible systems. The existence of "regulation reversal mutations" at the mea(R) locus and the lack of uniformity and coordination with which different enzymatic activities respond to mutational derepression is most compatible with the last type of hypothesis.