Crossing-over across the centromere in the mating-type chromosome ofNeurospora crassa

Genetica ◽  
1969 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Osama M. Rifaat
Genetics ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 154 (2) ◽  
pp. 623-633 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alena Gallegos ◽  
David J Jacobson ◽  
Namboori B Raju ◽  
Marian P Skupski ◽  
Donald O Natvig

Abstract Neurospora crassa and related heterothallic ascomycetes produce eight homokaryotic self-sterile ascospores per ascus. In contrast, asci of N. tetrasperma contain four self-fertile ascospores each with nuclei of both mating types (matA and mata). The self-fertile ascospores of N. tetrasperma result from first-division segregation of mating type and nuclear spindle overlap at the second meiotic division and at a subsequent mitotic division. Recently, Merino et al. presented population-genetic evidence that crossing over is suppressed on the mating-type chromosome of N. tetrasperma, thereby preventing second-division segregation of mating type and the formation of self-sterile ascospores. The present study experimentally confirmed suppressed crossing over for a large segment of the mating-type chromosome by examining segregation of markers in crosses of wild strains. Surprisingly, our study also revealed a region on the far left arm where recombination is obligatory. In cytological studies, we demonstrated that suppressed recombination correlates with an extensive unpaired region at pachytene. Taken together, these results suggest an unpaired region adjacent to one or more paired regions, analogous to the nonpairing and pseudoautosomal regions of animal sex chromosomes. The observed pairing and obligate crossover likely reflect mechanisms to ensure chromosome disjunction.


Genetics ◽  
1985 ◽  
Vol 111 (4) ◽  
pp. 779-794
Author(s):  
Yuuji Tsukii ◽  
Koichi Hiwatashi

ABSTRACT Artificially induced intersyngenic crosses in Paramecium caudatum can produce viable and fertile hybrids. When F1 hybrids of double E mating type (Mt  1/Mt  3 or Mt  12/Mt  3) were crossed with mating type O (mt/mt), aberrant segregants of double E and single O type were produced. This segregation was not explained by ordinary equal or unequal crossing over. Breeding analyses of these segregants by using linkage between Mt and cnrA (a behavioral mutant) revealed that they were produced by meiotic nondisjunction of bivalent chromosomes carrying Mt genes, and thus the double E and single O segregants were aneuploids: trisomics (Mt  1/Mt  3/mt or Mt  12/Mt  3/mt) and monosomics (mt), respectively. An aberrant segregant was also obtained for another locus, tnd 2, independent of both Mt and cnrA, suggesting the occurrence of meiotic nondisjunction throughout hybrid genomes. These aneuploids will be useful for genetic study in this species. The occurrence of meiotic nondisjunction in the intersyngenic hybrids also suggests that syngens of P. caudatum have been reproductively isolated for long enough to develop chromosomal incompatibility in their meiotic process.


Genetics ◽  
1977 ◽  
Vol 85 (3) ◽  
pp. 427-437
Author(s):  
Carl Frankel ◽  
Albert H Ellingboe

ABSTRACT Two sets of diploid cultures of S. commune were observed for sectoring due to haploidization or recombination. Each set consisted of compatible and common-AB diploids otherwise almost isogenic. One of the sets included two compatible diploids with a large proportion of dikaryotic cells. The sectors were isolated and analysed for evidence of aneuploidy and frequent crossing over to determine whether they arose via mitotic or meiotic-like events. It was found that the recombination process in both common-AB and compatible diploids was predominantly mitotic. However, the compatible diploids which developed a high frequency of dikaryotic components gave some evidence of meiotic-like activity. Thus, compatible mating-type factors are necessary for dikaryosis, but not sufficient in themselves to produce it. In compatible mycelia where dikaryosis does occur, meiotic-like recombination may also occur. It is proposed that both lapse into the dikaryotic state, and meiotic-like recombination was induced by different genes under control of the incompatibility factors. Dikaryosis and meiosis are thus seen as tandem phenomena, neither causal of the other but both induced by action of compatible mating-type factors.


Genetics ◽  
1976 ◽  
Vol 82 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-206
Author(s):  
Yona Kassir ◽  
Giora Simchen

ABSTRACT A supposed sporulation-deficient mutation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae is found to affect mating in haploids and in diploids, and to be inseparable from the mating-type locus by recombination. The mutation is regarded as a defective a allele and is designated a*. This is confirmed by its dominance relations in diploids, triploids, and tetraploids. Tetrad analysis of tetraploids and of their sporulating diploid progeny suggests the existence of an additional locus, RME, which regulates sporulation in yeast strains that can mate. Thus the recessive homozygous constitution rme/rme enables the diploids a*/α, a/a*, and α/α to go through meiosis. Haploids carrying rme show apparent premeiotic DNA replication in sporulation conditions. This new regulatory locus is linked to the centromere of the mating-type chromosome, and its two alleles, rme and RME, are found among standard laboratory strains.


Genetics ◽  
1972 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-51
Author(s):  
David D Perkins

ABSTRACT In strain T(I⇉II)39311 a long interstitial segment is transposed from IL to IIR, where it is inserted in reversed order with respect to the centromere. In crosses of T x T essentially all asci have eight viable, black spores, and all progeny are phenotypically normal. When T(I⇉II)39311 is crossed by Normal sequence (N), the expected duplication class is viable while the corresponding deficiency is lethal; 44% of the asci have 8 Black (viable) spores and 0 White (inviable) spores, 41% have 4 Black: 4 White, and 10% have 6 Black: 2 White. These are the ascus types expected from normal centromere disjunction without crossing over (8B:0W and 4B:4W equally probable), and with crossing over between centromere and break point (6B:2W). On germination, 8B:0W asci give rise to only parental types—4 T and 4 N; 4B:4W asci usually give four duplication (Dup) progeny; and 6B:2W asci usually give 2 T, 2 N, 2 Dup. Thus one third of all viable, black ascospores contain duplications.—Recessive markers in the donor chromosome which contributes the translocated segment can be mapped by duplication coverage. Ratios of 2 Dominant: 1 Recessive νs. 1 Dominant: 2 Recessive distinguish location in or outside the transposed segment. Eleven loci including mating type have been shown to lie within the segment, and markers at four loci have been transferred into the segment by meiotic recombination. The frequency of marker transfer indicates that the inserted segment usually pairs with its homologue. Ascus types that would result from single exchanges within the insertion are infrequent, as expected if asci containing dicentric bridges usually do not survive.—Duplication ascospores germinate to produce distinctive inhibited colonies. Later these "escape" to grow like wild type, and genes that were initially heterozygous in the duplication segregate when escape occurs. As with duplications from pericentric inversion In(IL⇉IR)H4250 (Newmeyer and Taylor 1967), the initial inhibition is attributed to mating-type heterozygosity, and escape to a somatic event that makes mating type homoor hemizygous.—Twenty additional duplication-generating Neurospora rearrangements are listed and described briefly in an Appendix.


1965 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 216-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. B. Scott-Emuakpor

Mutant genes in linkage groups I (mating-type chromosome), VI and VII have been transferred from Neurospora crassa to N. sitophila by hybridization and repeated backcrossing. Recombination between these genes has been studied from five-point crosses involving linkage group I and three-point crosses involving linkage groups VI and VII of the two species.The results show significant differences in the amount of recombination between some of the genes in the proximal regions of the mating-type chromosomes of the two species. They indicate proximal localization of crossovers in the mating-type chromosome of N. sitophila. The results also show significant differences in recombination frequency between the genes in linkage group VI and a close similarity in linkage group VII. They further show that the centromere in the two species may not be interfering with crossing-over in its vicinity to such an extent as to be of any evolutionary significance.


Genetics ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 143 (2) ◽  
pp. 789-799 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra T Merino ◽  
Mary Anne Nelson ◽  
David J Jacobson ◽  
Donald O Natvig

Abstract Ascospores of Neurospora tetrasperma normally contain nuclei of both mating-type idiomorphs (a and A), resulting in self-fertile heterokaryons (a type of sexual reproduction termed pseudohomothallism). Occasional homokaryotic self-sterile strains (either a or A) behave as heterothallics and, in principle, provide N. tetrasperma with a means for facultative outcrossing. This studywas conceived as an investigation of the population biology of N. tetrasperma to assess levels of intrastrain heterokaryosis (heterozygosity). The unexpected result was that the mating-type chromosome and autosomes exhibited very different patterns of evolution, apparently because of suppressed recombination between mating-type chromosomes. Analysis of sequences on the mating-type chromosomes of wild-collected self-fertile strains revealed high levels of genetic variability between sibling A and a nuclei. In contrast, sequences on autosomes of sibling A and a nuclei exhibited nearly complete homogeneity. Conservation of distinct haplotype combinations on A and a mating-type chromosomes in strains from diverse locations further suggested an absence of recombination over substantial periods of evolutionary time. The suppression of recombination on the N. tetrasperma mating-type chromosome, expected to ensure a high frequency of self fertility, presents an interesting parallel with, and possible model for studying aspects of, the evolution of mammalian sex chromosomes.


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