(1,3)-beta-D-glucan synthase activity in mycelial and cell wall-less phenotypes of the fz, sg, os-1 ("slime") mutant strain of Neurospora crassa.

The cell wall-less fz, sg, os-1 ("slime") triple mutant of Neurospora crassa lacks (1,3)-beta-D-glucan synthase activity. fz, sg, os-1 segregants from slime x wild-type crosses initially germinate as a plasmodium (slime-like), but develop hyphae in a few hours and acquire a stable mycelial phenotype (mycelial intermediate). The cell wall-less phenotype (stable slime) can be reisolated from mycelial intermediates by filtration-enrichment selection in medium of high osmolarity. Pairs of mycelial intermediate and stable slime obtained from a single slime-like segregant were comparatively studied. Mycelial intermediate strains synthesize a cell wall with normal amounts of (1,3)-beta-glucan, chitin, and other polysaccharides and possess (1,3)-beta-glucan synthase activity with apparently normal properties (i.e., association with membranes, stability, Km app, Vmax, stimulation by GTP). The enzyme was dissociated by treatment with Tergitol NP-40 and NaCl into a membrane-bound catalytic center and a soluble factor which activates the enzyme in the presence of GTP. Heterologous reconstitution assays demonstrated that stable slime spheroplasts had normal activity of the soluble activating factor, but were severely deficient in membrane-bound activity. The genetic composition of the viable progeny of stable slime or mycelial intermediate x wild-type crosses failed to show differences between the two extreme phenotypes of slime. However, the analysis of heterokaryons demonstrated that the stable slime homokaryotic progeny of stable slime/wild-type heterokaryons were not viable. In contrast, the behavior of mycelial intermediate/wild-type heterokaryons was normal. Apparently, stable slime strains differed from the original mycelial intermediate in a mutation(s) which arose spontaneously during the filtration-enrichment selection applied to mycelial intermediates in order to obtain the cell wall-less phenotype. This new trait impaired conidial germination and might be the actual cause of the loss of (1,3)-beta-glucan synthase activity and cell wall.