Characteristics of a glycerol utilization mutant of Neurospora crassa.

A mutant of Neurospora crassa able to grow on liquid minimal glycerol medium without evidence of conidiation and with high cell yields has been isolated and shown to be allelic to ff-1. The glycerol-specific induction of glycerokinase and glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase was similar in both wild-type and mutant cells, although higher specific activities as well as higher glycerokinase cross-reacting material levels were found in fully induced mutant cells. After growth in minimal glycerol medium there is a significant reduction in wild-type cells of the activities of both pyruvate dehydrogenase and dihydrolipoyl transacetylase. This evidence indicates a relationship between the conditional acetate requirement by wild-type cells grown on glycerol medium and the levels of the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex.