Changes in glucosamine and galactosamine levels during conidial germination in Neurospora crassa.

The levels of glucosamine and galactosamine were determined in conidia, germinating conidia, and vegetative mycelia of Neurospora crassa. In the vegetative mycelia about 90% of the amino sugars were shown to be components of the cell wall. The remaining 10% of the amino sugars were tentatively identified as the nucleotide sugars uridine diphospho-2-acetamido-2-deoxy-D-glucose and uridine diphospho-2-acetamido-2-deoxy-D-galactose. Conidia and vegetative mycelia contained about the same levels of glucosamine. During the first 9 h after the initiation of germination, the total glucosamine content had increased 3.1-fold, whereas the residual dry weight of the culture had increased 7.7-fold. This led to a drop in the glucosamine concentration from 100 mumol/g of residual dry weight to 42 mumol/g. During this time, all of the conidia had germinated and the surface area of the new germ tubes had increased to 10 times that of the conidia. Either germ tubes were initially produced without glucosamine-containing polymers, or these polymers (probably chitin) were deposited only at low densities in the germ tube cell walls. The chitin precursor uridine diphospho-2-acetamido-2-deoxy-D-glucose was present at all times during conidial germination. Conida contained very low levels of galactosamine. During germination, galactosamine could not be detected until the culture had reached a cell density of about 0.6 mg of residual dry weight per ml of growth medium. This was observed regardless of the time required to reach this cell density or the fold increase in dry weight. The accumulation of galactosamine-containing polymers does not appear to be necessary for germ tube formation. The levels of soluble galactosamine (uridine diphospho-2-actamido-2-deoxy-D-galatose) were very low in conidia and increased during germination at the same time that galactosamine appeared in the cellular polymers. In addition, under certain culture conditions, the appearance of galactosamine and the increase in the glucosamine concentration occurred simultaneously.