Figure 5.

Mutant C contains a mutation in the locus designated as AN1232 and representing the sonC gene, which defines a protein containing a Zn₂Cys₆ domain. (A) Table showing the mutation found in mutant C. (B) Diagram of SonC, which contains a C6 zinc finger potential DNA-binding domain (gray box), and the mutation found in mutant C (sonC1), which is located in the N-terminal region. (C) ClustalW alignment (http://workbench.sdsc.edu) of SonC and its orthologs. Identical groups [indicated by an asterisk (*)], conserved strong groups [indicated by a colon (:)], and conserved weak groups [indicated by a period (.)] are noted. Accession numbers for the sequences are the following: A. nidulans (AN1232; Aspergillus Genome Database, http://www.aspgd.org); Penicillium chrysogenum (Pc16g03990); Coccidioides immitis (CIMG_10322); Bipolaris maydis (COCC4DRAFT_161203, with amino acids 642–689 removed prior to performing the alignment as this region is absent from the other orthologs and so is likely part of an intron); Sclerotinia sclerotiorum (SS1G_09964); Fusarium oxysporum (FOXB_15136, with amino acids 1–67 removed prior to performing the alignment as this region is likely part of the 5′ UTR); Trichoderma reesei (hypothetical protein, locus EGR51802); and Neurospora crassa (NCU07692). The C6 zinc finger domain is highly conserved, and the six cysteine residues with the spacing CX₂CX₆CX₅CX₂CX₁₂C are found in all SonC orthologs (boxed in red). (D) SonC orthologs were found only in the Ascomycota, and the amino acid changed in sonC1 (boxed in red) occurs in a short, highly conserved region of the protein predicted to form an alpha-helix (JPred 3) (Cole et al. 2008). Sequences used are the same as in C. See Figure S2 for the alignment of the entire protein sequences.