Mating type in Neurospora and closely related ascomycetes: some current problems

1995 ◽  
Vol 73 (S1) ◽  
pp. 251-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert L. Metzenberg ◽  
Thomas A. Randall
Keyword(s):  
Dna Sequence ◽  
Mating Type ◽  
Podospora Anserina ◽  
Mating Types ◽  
Hmg Proteins ◽  
Fruiting Body Formation ◽  
Unique Region ◽  
Mating Type Switching ◽  
Flanking Sequences ◽  
Relationship Of

Neurospora crassa and related ascomycetes such as Podospora anserina exist in two mating types, encoded in a unique region of one chromosome. Classical genetic analysis outlined the nature of the questions and provided important materials for further work. In the mating type region, there is little DNA sequence resemblance between the two mating types. They are, therefore, called idiomorphs rather than alleles. There are no silent copies of these sequences in the genome, so mating type switching is impossible. Cloning, sequence analysis, and complementation studies involving these idiomorphs has begun to shed light on their function. One of the idiomorphs contains three reading frames; one is essential for fertilization and fruiting body formation and the other two are involved in post-fertilization functions including ascus and ascospore formation. In various species of the genus Neurospora, the centromere-proximal flank of the idiomorphs is highly variable in DNA sequence among species, and in some cases, between mating types. The similarities and differences in these flanking sequences allow some conclusions to be drawn about the possible phylogenetic relationship of these species. Key words: Neurospora, ascomycetes, mating, evolution, compatibility, HMG proteins.

Mating types and sexual development in filamentous ascomycetes

1997 ◽  
Vol 61 (4) ◽  
pp. 411-428 ◽  
Author(s):  
E Coppin ◽  
R Debuchy ◽  
S Arnaise ◽  
M Picard
Keyword(s):  
Mating Type ◽  
Sexual Development ◽  
Single Species ◽  
Podospora Anserina ◽  
Type Model ◽  
Mating Types ◽  
Dna Binding Domains ◽  
Binding Domains ◽  
Hormonal Signal ◽  
Mat Genes

The progress made in the molecular characterization of the mating types in several filamentous ascomycetes has allowed us to better understand their role in sexual development and has brought to light interesting biological problems. The mating types of Neurospora crassa, Podospora anserina, and Cochliobolus heterostrophus consist of unrelated and unique sequences containing one or several genes with multiple functions, related to sexuality or not, such as vegetative incompatibility in N. crassa. The presence of putative DNA binding domains in the proteins encoded by the mating-type (mat) genes suggests that they may be transcriptional factors. The mat genes play a role in cell-cell recognition at fertilization, probably by activating the genes responsible for the hormonal signal whose occurrence was previously demonstrated by physiological experiments. They also control recognition between nuclei at a later stage, when reproductive nuclei of each mating type which have divided in the common cytoplasm pair within the ascogenous hyphae. How self is distinguished from nonself at the nuclear level is not known. The finding that homothallic species, able to mate in the absence of a partner, contain both mating types in the same haploid genome has raised more issues than it has resolved. The instability of the mating type, in particular in Sclerotinia trifolorium and Botrytinia fuckeliana, is also unexplained. This diversity of mating systems, still more apparent if the yeasts and the basidiomycetes are taken into account, clearly shows that no single species can serve as a universal mating-type model.

scholarly journals Cloning the mating types of the heterothallic fungus Podospora anserina: developmental features of haploid transformants carrying both mating types.

Genetics ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 128 (3) ◽  
pp. 539-547 ◽  
Author(s):  
M Picard ◽  
R Debuchy ◽  
E Coppin
Keyword(s):  
Mating Type ◽  
Gene Replacement ◽  
Podospora Anserina ◽  
The Other ◽  
Mating Types ◽  
Body Development ◽  
Fruiting Body Development ◽  
Mat Locus ◽  
Functional Analyses ◽  
Developmental Features

Abstract DNAs that encode the mating-type functions (mat+ and mat-) of the filamentous fungus Podospora anserina were cloned with the use of the mating-type A probe from Neurospora crassa. Cloning the full mat information was ascertained through gene replacement experiments. Molecular and functional analyses of haploid transformants carrying both mating types lead to several striking conclusions. Mat+ mat- strains are dual maters. However, the resident mat information is dominant to the mat information added by transformation with respect to fruiting body development and ascus production. Moreover, when dual mating mat+ mat- strains are crossed to mat+ or mat- testers, there is strong selection, after fertilization, that leads to the loss from the mat+ mat- nucleus of the mat information that matches that of the tester. Finally, the mat locus contains at least two domains, one sufficient for fertilization, the other necessary for sporulation.

scholarly journals Mating type switching in the tetrapolar basidiomycete Agrocybe aegerita.

Genetics ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 131 (2) ◽  
pp. 307-319 ◽  
Author(s):  
J Labarère ◽  
T Noël
Keyword(s):  
Filamentous Fungi ◽  
Mating Type ◽  
Wild Strain ◽  
Large Series ◽  
Mating Types ◽  
Genetic Analyses ◽  
Agrocybe Aegerita ◽  
Mating Type Switching ◽  
Type Factor ◽  
First Time

Abstract The study of fruiting in the basidiomycete Agrocybe aegerita has shown that some haploid homokaryotic strains can spontaneously switch their mating specificities at the two unlinked A and B mating type factors. This event causes the dikaryotisation of primary homokaryons without plasmogamy and leads to the differentiation of sporulating fruit-bodies (pseudo-homokaryotic fruiting). For each mating type factor, the genetic analyses have revealed that: (1) parental and switched mating types segregate meiotically as Mendelian markers, (2) a total of six switched mating type factors (two parental and four nonparental) were obtained from a wild strain, (3) most of the nonparental factors have specificities differing from those of a large series of wild factors, (4) strains with the same expressed mating type can generate different specificities, (5) switching is always restricted to the same mating type in a homokaryon, (6) nonparental types can switch again, and (7) meiosis fixes the specificities to which switching can occur. This suggests, for the first time in filamentous fungi, the existence of a mechanism analogous to the mating type switching in yeasts. We hypothese that both A and B mating type regions in A. aegerita are constituted of three loci, one specialized in expression and two other carrying silent information. Mating type switching in homokaryotic strains would occur by copy transposition of silent A and B information into the expression loci. Moreover, we propose that during meiosis the silent loci are substituted by copies of the expressed loci.

scholarly journals Size variation of the non-recombining region on the mating-type chromosomes in the fungal Podospora anserina species complex

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fanny E Hartmann ◽  
S Lorena Ament-Velásquez ◽  
Aaron A Vogan ◽  
Valérie Gautier ◽  
Stephanie Le Prieur ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mating Type ◽  
Sex Chromosomes ◽  
Chromosomal Rearrangements ◽  
Size Variation ◽  
Sequence Divergence ◽  
Podospora Anserina ◽  
Strong Linkage Disequilibrium ◽  
Mating Types ◽  
Type Locus ◽  
Mating Type Locus

Abstract Sex chromosomes often carry large non-recombining regions that can extend progressively over time, generating evolutionary strata of sequence divergence. However, some sex chromosomes display an incomplete suppression of recombination. Large genomic regions without recombination and evolutionary strata have also been documented around fungal mating-type loci, but have been studied in only a few fungal systems. In the model fungus Podospora anserina (Ascomycota, Sordariomycetes), the reference S strain lacks recombination across a 0.8 Mb region around the mating-type locus. The lack of recombination in this region ensures that nuclei of opposite mating types are packaged into a single ascospore (pseudo-homothallic lifecycle). We found evidence for a lack of recombination around the mating-type locus in the genomes of 10 P. anserina strains and six closely related pseudo-homothallic Podospora species. Importantly, the size of the non-recombining region differed between strains and species, as indicated by the heterozygosity levels around the mating-type locus and experimental selfing. The non-recombining region is probably labile and polymorphic, differing in size and precise location within and between species, resulting in occasional, but infrequent, recombination at a given base pair. This view is also supported by the low divergence between mating types, and the lack of strong linkage disequilibrium, chromosomal rearrangements, trans-specific polymorphism and genomic degeneration. We found a pattern suggestive of evolutionary strata in P. pseudocomata. The observed heterozygosity levels indicate low but non-null outcrossing rates in nature in these pseudo-homothallic fungi. This study adds to our understanding of mating-type chromosome evolution and its relationship to mating systems.

scholarly journals INTERCONVERSION OF YEAST MATING TYPES III. ACTION OF THE HOMOTHALLISM (HO) GENE IN CELLS HOMOZYGOUS FOR THE MATING TYPE LOCUS

Genetics ◽  
1977 ◽  
Vol 85 (3) ◽  
pp. 395-405 ◽  
Author(s):  
James B Hicks ◽  
Jeffrey N Strathern ◽  
Ira Herskowitz
Keyword(s):  
Saccharomyces Cerevisiae ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Gene Product ◽  
Direct Observation ◽  
Mating Type ◽  
Mating Types ◽  
Type Locus ◽  
Mating Type Locus ◽  
Mating Type Switching ◽  
Ho Gene

ABSTRACT Mating type interconversion in homothallic Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been studied in diploids homozygous for the mating type locus produced by sporulation of a/a/a/α and a/a/α/α tetraploid strains. Mating type switches have been analyzed by techniques including direct observation of cells for changes in α-factor sensitivity. Another method of following mating type switching exploits the observation that a/α cells exhibit polar budding and a/a and α/α cells exhibit medial budding.—These studies indicate the following: (1) The allele conferring the homothallic life cycle (HO) is dominant to the allele conferring the heterothallic life cycle (ho). (2) The action of the HO gene is controlled by the mating type locus—active in a/a and α/α cells but not in a/α cells. (3) The HO (or HO-controlled) gene product can act independently on two mating type alleles located on separate chromosomes in the same nucleus. (4) A switch in mating type is observed in pairs of cells, each of which has the same change.

scholarly journals Molecular Genetics of Mating Recognition in Basidiomycete Fungi

1998 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorna A. Casselton ◽  
Natalie S. Olesnicky
Keyword(s):  
Mating Type ◽  
Sexual Development ◽  
Schizophyllum Commune ◽  
Single Species ◽  
Podospora Anserina ◽  
Mating Types ◽  
Active Transcription ◽  
Mating Type Genes ◽  
Type Gene ◽  
Basidiomycete Fungi

SUMMARY The recognition of compatible mating partners in the basidiomycete fungi requires the coordinated activities of two gene complexes defined as the mating-type genes. One complex encodes members of the homeobox family of transcription factors, which heterodimerize on mating to generate an active transcription regulator. The other complex encodes peptide pheromones and 7-transmembrane receptors that permit intercellular signalling. Remarkably, a single species may have many thousands of cross-compatible mating types because the mating-type genes are multiallelic. Different alleles of both sets of genes are necessary for mating compatibility, and they trigger the initial stages of sexual development—the formation of a specialized filamentous mycelium termed the dikaryon, in which the haploid nuclei remain closely associated in each cell but do not fuse. Three species have been taken as models to describe the molecular structure and organization of the mating-type loci and the genes sequestered within them: the pathogenic smut fungus Ustilago maydis and the mushrooms Coprinus cinereus and Schizophyllum commune. Topics addressed in this review are the roles of the mating-type gene products in regulating sexual development, the molecular basis for multiple mating types, and the molecular interactions that permit different allelic products of the mating type genes to be discriminated. Attention is drawn to the remarkable conservation in the mechanisms that regulate sexual development in basidiomycetes and unicellular ascomycete yeasts, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Schizosaccharomyces pombe, a theme which is developed in the general conclusion to include the filamentous ascomycetes Neurospora crassa and Podospora anserina.

scholarly journals Mating-Type Genes From the Homothallic Fungus Sordaria macrospora Are Functionally Expressed in a Heterothallic Ascomycete

Genetics ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 147 (2) ◽  
pp. 567-580 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefanie Pöggeler ◽  
Siegfried Risch ◽  
Ulrich Kück ◽  
Heinz D Osiewacz
Keyword(s):  
Mating Type ◽  
Fruiting Body ◽  
Podospora Anserina ◽  
Open Reading Frames ◽  
Fruiting Body Formation ◽  
Type Locus ◽  
Sordaria Macrospora ◽  
Mating Type Locus ◽  
Body Development ◽  
Mating Type Genes

Homokaryons from the homothallic ascomycte Sordaria macrospora are able to enter the sexual pathway and to form fertile fruiting bodies. To analyze the molecular basis of homothallism and to elucidate the role of mating-products during fruiting body development, we cloned and sequenced the entire S. macrospora mating-type locus. Comparison of the Sordaria mating-type locus with mating-type idiomorphs from the heterothallic ascomycetes Neurospora crassa and Podospora anserina revealed that sequences from both idiomorphs (A/a and mat–/mat+, respectively) are contiguous in S. macrospora. DNA sequencing of the S. macrospora mating-type region allowed the identification of four open reading frames (ORFs), which were termed Smt-a1, SmtA-1, SmtA-2 and SmtA-3. While Smt-a1, SmtA-1, and SmtA-2 show strong sequence similarities with the corresponding N. crassa mating-type ORFs, SmtA-3 has a chimeric character. It comprises sequences that are similar to the A and a mating-type idiomorph from N. crassa. To determine functionality of the S. macrospora mating-type genes, we show that all ORFs are transcriptionally expressed. Furthermore, we transformed the S. macrospora mating-type genes into mat– and mat+ strains of the closely related heterothallic fungus P. anserina. The transformation experiments show that mating-type genes from S. macrospora induce fruiting body formation in P. anserina.

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