Tremella fuciformis is a dimorphic fungus which can undertake the reversible transition between yeast and pseudohypha forms. G protein α subunit (Gα) carries different signals to regulate a variety of biological processes in eukaryotes, including fungal dimorphism. In this study, a novel Gα subunit encoded gene, TrGpa1, was firstly cloned from T. fuciformis. The TrGpa1 open reading frame has 1059 nucleotides, and encodes a protein which belongs to the group I of Gα_i superfamily. Furthermore, the role of TrGpa1 in the T. fuciformis dimorphism was analysed by gene overexpression and knockdown. Stable integration of the target gene into the genome was confirmed by PCR and Southern blot hybridization. Transformants with the highest and lowest TrGpa1 expression levels were selected via quantitative real-time PCR analysis and Western blot. Each transformant was compared with the wild-type strain about the morphological change under different environmental factors, including pH values, temperature, cultivation time, inoculum size, and quorum-sensing molecules (farnesol and tyrosol). Comparing with the wild-type strain, the overexpression transformant always had higher ratios of pseudohyphae, while the knockdown transformant had less proportions of pseudohyphae. Therefore, the TrGpa1 is involved in the dimorphism of T. fuciformis and plays a positive role in promoting pseudohyphal growth.

Tremella fuciformis是一种双态真菌，可以在酵母和假菌丝形式之间进行可逆转变。G 蛋白 α 亚基 (Gα) 携带不同的信号来调节真核生物中的各种生物过程，包括真菌二态性。在这项研究中，一个新的 Gα 亚基编码基因，TrGpa1，首先从T. fuciformis 中克隆出来。所述TrGpa1开放阅读框具有1059个核苷酸，且编码属于Gα的组I的蛋白质_我超家族。此外，TrGpa1在T. fuciformis 中的作用通过基因过表达和敲低来分析二态性。PCR和Southern印迹杂交证实了靶基因稳定整合到基因组中。通过实时定量 PCR 分析和蛋白质印迹选择具有最高和最低TrGpa1表达水平的转化体。将每个转化体与野生型菌株在不同环境因素下的形态变化进行比较，包括 pH 值、温度、培养时间、接种物大小和群体感应分子（法尼醇和酪醇）。与野生型菌株相比，过表达转化株总是具有较高的假菌丝比例，而敲低转化株的假菌丝比例较低。因此，TrGpa1参与了T. fuciformis并在促进假菌丝生长中起积极作用。