ISOLATION AND ANALYSIS OF THE PENICILLIUM-CHRYSOGENUM PHOA GENE ENCODING A SECRETED PHOSPHATE-REPRESSIBLE ACID-PHOSPHATASE

We have isolated the genomic sequence encoding a secreted phosphate-repressible acid phosphatase (PHOA) from Penicillium chrysogenum using synthetic oligodeoxyribonucleotide probes. Nucleotide sequence data revealed that this gene consists of two exons of 192 and 1047 bp separated by an intron of 52 bp in length. A sequence encoding a putative signal peptide, resembling known signal sequences of fungi, was identified at the 5'-end of the coding sequence. Northern blot analysis of total cellular RNA indicated that the phoA gene codes for a 1.6-kb transcript. The expression of this gene is regulated at the transcriptional level and is markedly affected by the inorganic phosphate concentration of the growth medium.