Cloning and characterization of the three enzyme structural genes QUTB, QUTC and QUTE from the quinic acid utilization gene cluster in Aspergillus nidulans.

Heterologous DNA probes from the quinic acid gene cluster (QA) in Neurospora crassa (Schweizer 1981) have been used to isolate the corresponding gene cluster (QUT) from Aspergillus nidulans cloned in a phage lambda vector. N. crassa probes for each of the three enzyme structural genes in the cluster have been used to identify the corresponding genes within the A. nidulans cloned DNA. The three genes are in the same relative sequence [dehydrogenase (1), QA-3 = QUTB; dehydratase (3), QA-4 = QUTC; dehydroquinase (2), QA-2 = QUTE] though contained within a 3.4 kb DNA sequence in Aspergillus compared to a 5.4 kb sequence in Neurospora. The A. nidulans dehydroquinase (2) gene QUTE has been shown to complement an auxotrophic mutant aroD6 of Escherichia coli lacking biosynthetic dehydroquinase when tested for growth at 30 degrees C. A mutant of A. nidulans lacking catabolic dehydroquinase (2) and designated qutE208 has been isolated and shown to be tightly linked to the gene cluster, which maps between the ornB and fwA loci in linkage group VIII.