Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 April 2009
We have investigated the effect of the ribosome-targeted antibiotic kasugamycin (ksg) in Podospora anserina. While ksg inhibits both growth and sporulation, it has a stronger inhibitory effect on the sporulation process. It was previously reported that sporulation of Podospora could be impaired when ribosomes translate with a too high accuracy, and since ksg was demonstrated to increase the ribosomal accuracy in E. coli, we wondered whether it would act similarly in Podospora. As a first approach we have isolated two mutations at different loci, Ks1 and Ks2, that increase the resistance to ksg at the level of both growth and sporulation. Interestingly Ks1−1 also confers a decreased resistance to paromomycin, which is a mistranslation inducer. Characterization of Ks1−1 and Ks2−1 mutants suggests that they could be ribosomal mutants.