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Full-Text Articles in Pathogenic Microbiology
Evolutionary Aspects Of Urea Utilization By Fungi, Dhammika H. M. L. P Navarathna, Steven D. Harris, David D. Roberts, Kenneth W. Nickerson
Evolutionary Aspects Of Urea Utilization By Fungi, Dhammika H. M. L. P Navarathna, Steven D. Harris, David D. Roberts, Kenneth W. Nickerson
Kenneth Nickerson Papers
The higher fungi exhibit a dichotomy with regard to urea utilization. The hemiascomycetes use urea amidolyase (DUR1,2), whereas all other higher fungi use the nickel-containing urease. Urea amidolyase is an energy-dependent biotincontaining enzyme. It likely arose before the Euascomycete/Hemiascomycete divergence c. 350 million years ago by insertion of an unknown gene into one copy of a duplicated methylcrotonyl CoA carboxylase (MccA). The dichotomy between urease and urea amidolyase coincides precisely with that for the Ni/Co transporter (Nic1p), which is present in the higher fungi that use urease and is absent in those that do not. We suggest that …