The precipitated DNA was collected by centrifugation (15000 g, 10 min at 4°C),

followed S3I-201 chemical structure by phenol-chloroform extraction and ethanol precipitation as described [11]. DNA manipulation Restriction enzymes (EcoRI, XhoI, NotI and AvrII), T4 DNA ligase and Taq DNA polymerase were purchased from New England Biolabs (Frankfurt, Germany). All enzymes were used under the conditions specified by the manufacturer. Plasmids were isolated using a QIAprep Spin Miniprep Kit (QIAGEN, Hilden, Germany), and the PCR products were purified with the QIAquick PCR Purification Kit (QIAGEN, Hilden, Germany). PCR reactions were performed in a (total volume of 50 μL) Mastercycler ep gradient S (Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany). The recovered PCR fragments and plasmids were sequenced by Eurofins MWG Operon (Ebersberg, Germany). Plasmids were transformed into E. coli and P. pastoris KPT-8602 using a Multiporator (Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany), according to the supplier’s protocol. Total RNA isolation To obtain the full-length cDNA of MCAP gene, total RNA was isolated from solid-state culture of the M. circinelloides as follows: 250 mL Erlenmeyer flasks containing 10 g of wheat bran moistened with 200 mM HCl, up to a water content of 120% on a dry basis, and autoclaved at 121°C

for 20 min, were inoculated with 5×106 spores of M. circinelloides. Cultured for four days at 24°C, 100 mg of the mycelium were collected with tweezers and immediately used for total RNA extraction using the RNeasy Plant Mini Kit (QIAGEN, Hilden, Germany). The concentration and quality of the total RNA was determined by

using the NanoDrop ND-1000 spectrophotometer (NanoDrop Technologies, Inc. Wilmington, Delaware, USA). First-strand cDNA synthesis, 5′-RACE cDNA and 3′-RACE cDNA Two microgram of total RNA were used for the synthesis of the first strand of 5′-RACE-Ready cDNA and 3′-RACE-Ready cDNA. The synthesized first strand cDNA was used as a template for the 5′-RACE cDNA and 3′-RACE cDNA using the gene specific reverse primer GSP-Mucor-2R and forward primer GSP-Mucor-1 F, check respectively (Table 2). In these cases, the conditions for PCR reactions were as described by Clontech (SMART RACE cDNA Amplification Kit User Manual). The amplified RACE fragments were separated by agarose gel electrophoresis and recovered using NucleoTrap Gel Extraction Trial Kit (Takara Europe-Clontech, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France). Using this technique, the sequences of the extreme ends of the MCAP gene (5′and 3′) were obtained. Finally, the full-length cDNA sequence of the aspartic proteinase of M. circinelloides (deposited in GenBank under accession number JQ906105) was amplified from the 5′-RACE-Ready cDNA while the genomic MCAP of the aspartic proteinase (deposited in GenBank under accession number JQ906106) was amplified from genomic DNA of M. circinelloides using the forward primers APMC-Met-F and the reverse primer APMC-stop-R (Table 2).