For this reason, SSG-2 belongs to the Gα class but cannot be strictly considered a Gαi, even though it is 46% identical

to mammalian Gαi class members. This shows the high degree of conservation in Gα subunits even among phylogenetically distant organisms. The work done in order to identify the role of Gα subunits in the filamentous fungi has been mainly concerned with the phenotypes observed when these genes are knocked-out (as reviewed by [6]). In this paper a different approach was used. We wanted to identify important protein-protein interactions selleck between SSG-2 and the complex signalling system that regulates the flow of information from the environment through the heterotrimeric G proteins into the cell in S. schenckii. Using the yeast two-hybrid technique we identified a cPLA2 homologue as Go6983 in vitro interacting with SSG-2 in two independent experiments, using two different cDNA libraries. This SSG-2-PLA2 interaction was also confirmed by co-immunoprecipitation. Up to date, protein-protein ABT-737 concentration interactions of these Gα subunits have not been reported in the pathogenic fungi, and

the exact proteins with which these Gα subunits interact have not been identified. This is the first report of a cytosolic PLA2 homologue interacting with a G protein α subunit in a pathogenic dimorphic fungus, suggesting a functional relationship between these two important proteins. Other proteins interact with SSG-2 (unpublished results), but the SSG-2-PLA2 interaction is very important as it connects this G protein α subunit with both pathogenicity

and lipid signal transduction in fungi [50]. This PLA2 homologue belongs to the Group IV PLA2 family that has been highly conserved throughout evolution. BLAST searches of the amino acid sequence of SSPLA2 against the Homo sapiens database shows that it is phylogenetically PAK6 related to the human Group IVA PLA2 family. This same analysis using the fungal databases revealed that SSPLA2 is more closely related to the phospholipases of the filamentous fungi than to PLAB of yeasts. The similarity to both human and fungal phospholipases is found primarily in the catalytic domain with a great deal of variation contained in the first and last 200 amino acids. In the catalytic domain we find an important difference between SSPLA2 and the human homologues. The former has one continuous catalytic domain, rather than the more typical cPLA2 structure where two homologous catalytic domains are present, interspaced with unique sequences [43]. SSPLA2 lacks the C2 motif found in cPLA2 of higher eukaryotes.