Program Book - 27th Fungal Genetics Conference

FULL POSTER SESSION ABSTRACTSseries of a zinc knuckles and a single glycine-arginine rich (GAR) region, which may serve as a target for protein arginine methyltransferases (RMTs).Primary sequence analysis revealed that, Gis2 from C. neoformans (CnGis2) shares significant primary sequence identity with Gis2 from S. cerevisiae(ScGis2) and the human CNBP/ZNF9 protein. However, ScGis2 does not contain a GAR motif; in contrast, the human ortholog contains a GAR element, andhas been shown to undergo methylation by RMT5. An in vitro methylation assay demonstrated that recombinant CnGis2 can be methylated by one (ormore) Cryptococcal RMTs. Investigation of the C. neoformans genome revealed there are 5 putative RMT genes. A C. neoformans rmt5D deletion mutantexhibited a severe growth defect and aberrant cell morphology at 39°C, suggesting that Rmt5 activity impacts temperature adaptation in C. neoformans.Further analysis of the rmt5D mutant and the remaining 4 C. neoformans RMTs will determine to contribution of protein arginine methylation to thevirulence and stress tolerance of C. neoformans.218