Mevalonate kinase as a target for fungicides

A nucleic acid encoding a polypeptide with the biological activity of a mevalonate kinase comprising

• a) a nucleic acid sequence with the sequence shown in SEQ ID NO:5, or
• b) a nucleic acid sequence which, owing to the degeneracy of the genetic code, can be deduced by backtranslation of the amino acid sequences shown in SEQ ID NO:6, or
• c) functional equivalents of SEQ ID NO:5 with at least 67% identity with SEQ ID NO:5, or
• d) a functional equivalent of SEQ ID NO:5 which, owing to the degeneracy of the genetic code, can be deduced by backtranslation of the amino acid sequence of a functional equivalent of SEQ ID NO:6 which has at least 72% identity with SEQ ID NO:6.

A nonhuman transgenic organism comprising:

• (a) at least one nucleic acid encoding a polypeptide with the biological activity of a mevalonate kinase comprising
• i) a nucleic acid sequence with the sequence shown in SEQ ID NO:5, or
• ii) a nucleic acid sequence which, owing to the degeneracy of the genetic code, can be deduced by backtranslation of the amino acid sequences shown in SEQ ID NO:6, or
• iii) functional equivalents of SEQ ID NO:5 with at least 67% identity with SEQ ID NO:5, or
• iv) a functional equivalent of SEQ ID NO:5 which, owing to the degeneracy of the genetic code, can be deduced by backtranslation of the amino acid sequence of a functional equivalent of SEQ ID NO:6 which has at least 72% identity with SEQ ID NO:6,
• (b) an expression cassette comprising genetic control sequences in operable linkage with a nucleic acid of (a), or
• (c) a vector comprising an expression cassette of (b), selected from among bacteria, yeasts, fungi and animal or plant cells.