Cloning and characterization of a gene coding for a hydrophobin, Fv-hyd1, specifically expressed during fruiting body development in the basidiomycete Flammulina velutipes.

Hydrophobin cDNA (fv-hyd1), which is specifically expressed during fruiting body development, was isolated from the basidiomycete Flammulina velutipes by differential display screening. Analysis of the genomic structure of fv-hyd1 revealed an open reading frame (ORF) composed of 363 nucleotides and interrupted by three introns. The deduced amino acid sequence of FV-HYD1 showed a similarity to those of other fungal class I hydrophobins and contained eight cysteine residues highly conserved among hydrophobin proteins. The pattern of the hydropathy plot of FV-HYD1 was similar to those of class I hydrophobins. Southern blot analysis of genomic DNA showed that fv-hyd1 existed as a single copy. Northern blot analysis indicated that the fv-hyd1 transcript was not present in vegetative mycelia but markedly increased in level at the primordial stage. Moreover, the fv-hyd1 transcript was abundant even at the mature fruiting body stage. This result indicates that fv-hyd1 could encode a hydrophobin closely associated with fruiting body development.