The absence of AfRcnA has a very heterogeneous influence on the mRNA accumulation of these genes. The AfrfeF (Afu4g10200) and

Af AAA ATPase (Afu4g04800) genes have increased mRNA accumulation in the absence of AfrcnA when compared to the wild type strain (about 1.5- and 5.0-times and about the same and 5-times increased at 10 and 30 minutes, respectively; Figures 5A and 5D). In contrast, the A. fumigatus phospholipase D (Afu2g16520) gene has lower mRNA accumulation of 3.6- and 5.0-times in the AfΔrcnA mutant than the wild type strain (Figure 5C). The mRNA accumulation of the Af BAR (Afu3g14230) and AfScf1 (Afu1g17370) genes is not affected by the absence of AfrcnA (Figures 5B and 5E). These data emphasize the complex influence of AfRcnA on the calcineurin pathway, both stimulating and inhibiting genes in this pathway. Figure 5 AfRcnA affects the mRNA accumulation of genes whose expression is influenced FAK inhibitor by AfcrzA. Fold increase in mRNA levels after the incubation ot he wild type and ΔAfrcnA mutant strains with 200 mM CaCl2 for 10 and 30 minutes of (A) AfrfeF (Afu4g10200), (B) Af Bar adaptor protein (Afu3g14230), (C) A. fumigatus phospholipase D (Afu2g16520),

(D) Af AAA ATPase (Afu4g04800), and (E) Afscf1 (Afu1g17370). The relative quantitation of all the genes and tubulin gene expression was determined by a standard curve (i.e., CT -values plotted against logarithm of the DNA copy Smad inhibitor number). The results are the means ± standard deviation of four sets of experiments. The values represent the number of times the genes are expressed compared to the corresponding wild type control strain

(represented absolutely medroxyprogesterone as 1.00). After several attempts, we were unable to obtain a completely functional A. fumigatus GFP::AfRcnA and an overexpression alcA:AfrcnA strains (data not shown). Thus, we decided to exploit the conserved features of A. nidulans calcineurin system [see [30]] and construct both an A. nidulans GFP and an alcA::AnrcnA strain. The A. nidulans AnRcnA homologue (AN6249.3) has about 71% identity and 82% (e-value 3e-94) similarity with the A. fumigatus AnRcnA (see also Additional file 3, Figure S1). Furthermore, to have a more detailed analysis of the A. nidulans AnRcnA, we also constructed an A. nidulans ΔAnrcnA deletion strain (Figure 6A). We evaluated its phenotype by using the same strategies above outlined for the A. fumigatus ΔAfrcnA. The A. nidulans ΔAnrcnA radial diameter is about 25% smaller than the wild type strain (Figure 6B). It is also more resistant to cyclosporine A (observe both strains have the same radial diameter when grown in the presence of cyclosporine A, however A. nidulans ΔAnrcnA is smaller than the wild type; Figure 6B). We have observed that the deletion of A. nidulans AnrcnA also confers more resistance to an oxidative stressing agent, paraquat at 4 mM (Figure 6B). Interestingly, A.