CEK2, a Novel MAPK from Candida
albicans Complement the Mating Defect of fus3/kss1 Mutant
CHEN Jing, WANG Qing, CHEN Jiang-Ye*
( State Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Shanghai Institute of
Biochemistry, the Chinese Acadamy
of Science, Shanghai 200031, China )
Abstract A novel MAPK(mitogen-activated
protein kinase) gene, CEK2(Candida albicans extracellular
signal-regulated kinase 2), was isolated by screening the Candida albicans library based
on oligonucleotide probe hybridization and degenerated PCR. The CEK2 gene is 1
119 bp in length, and coding for a 373 aa protein. The CEK2 shares 56%
homology with CEK1 from Candida albicans, 55 %
homology with FUS3 from S.
cerevisiae.
From the deduced amino acid sequence, the Cek2 protein contains a conserved ATP
binding site and a Ser/Thr kinase activity signal and a conserved TEY sequence
was located at L12 region. In vitro kinase activity assay showed
Cek2 could phosphorylate MBP(myelin bovine protein) but not histone H1. CEK2 gene could
complement the fus3/kss1 mutant and underwent mating signal induction by a
tester strain, but CEK1 gene could not complement with the fus3/kss1 mutant. CEK2 is therefore
a FUS3 homolog in Candida albicans.
Key words C. albicans； MAPK； CEK2； mating
Received:
October 26, 1999 Accepted: December 27, 1999
This work was supported by National Natural Sciences Foundation
of China(No. 39625009, No. 39970016) and Special Foundation of the Chinese
Academy of Science(No. STZ-02-03)
* Corresponding author: Tel, 86-21-64374430-251; Fax,
86-21-64338357; e-mail, [email protected]