Nitrogen regulation of acid phosphatase in Neurospora crassa.

Neurospora crassa possesses a repressible acid phosphatase with phosphodiesterase activity which appears to permit it to utilize ribonucleic acid as a phosphorus and as a nitrogen source. This acid phosphatase, which is specified by the pho-3 locus, is derepressed approximately eightfold during nitrogen limitation and to an even greater extent during phosphorus limitation, but is unaffected by sulfur limitation. Derepression of the enzyme did not occur when adenosine 5'-monophosphate was the sole phosphorus or nitrogen source. Synthesis of the acid phosphatase is not under the control of the nit-2 locus, which regulates the expression of a large number of other nitrogen catabolic enzymes. The structural gene of the acid phosphatase appears to be a member of both the phosphorus and nitrogen regulatory circuits.