Depression of uracil uptake by ammonium in Neurospora crassa

The mechanism of uracil uptake and one aspect of its regulation were studied in germinated conidia of Neurospora crassa. Uracil was found to be taken up by a transport mechanism that did not exhibit Michaelis-Menten kinetics. Rather, the kinetic patterns indicated two separate systems or a single transport mechanism with negative cooperativity. Cytosine and thymine inhibited uracil uptake, but uridine did not. The mutant strain uc-5-pyr-1, which failed to transport uracil, was used in reversion studies and to map the uc-5 locus. Spontaneous reversion rates at the uc-5 locus were found to be approximately 2 x 10(-8), indicating that the uc-5 lesion results from a single mutation. Loss of the uracil transport function through a single mutation favors the model of a single transport mechanism with negative cooperativity. Uracil uptake was significantly decreased in the presence of NH 4+, and evidence is presented for repression by NH4+ of a uracil transport system. Growth rates of pyrimidine-requiring and wild-type strains measured in the presence and absence of NH4+, with uracil as the pyrimidine supplement, showed that NH4+ decreased the growth rates of the pyrimidine-requiring strains significantly, while having no effect on wild-type growth rates.