A near terminal pericentric inversion leads to nitrogen metabolite derepression in Aspergillus nidulans

The mutation xprD-1, previously shown to be an allele of the areA gene and to lead to nitrogen metabolite derepression in Aspergillus nidulans, is shown to be associated with a near terminal pericentric inversion in linkage group III. The left arm break-point is between the adI and sC genes, and the right arm break-point is between the ornC and areA genes but just centromere proximal to areA. In crosses of xprD-1 strains to inversion-free strains one class of duplication-deficiency progeny is recovered. These progeny have two copies of the distal portion of the left arm beginning just before sC but lack a copy of areA and the region distal to it on the right arm. The viability of these duplication-deficiency progeny indicates that no indispensable gene can lie distal to areA, suggesting proximity of areA to the telomere. The inversion might increase expression of areA which, given the positive acting nature of this regulatory gene, would result in nitrogen metabolite derepression. If increased expression be the result of fusion to (or creation of) a more efficient promoter and/or ribosome binding sequence, areA must be transcribed towards the right arm telomere.