Stepwise recombination suppression around the mating-type locus associated with a diploid-like life cycle in Schizothecium fungi.

ABSTRACT: Recombination suppression often evolves around sex-determining loci and extends stepwise, resulting in adjacent regions with different levels of divergence between sex chromosomes, called evolutionary strata. In Ascomycota fungi, evolutionary strata around the mating-type (MAT) locus have been reported only in pseudo-homothallic species, which have a diploid-like life cycle with mycelia carrying nuclei of both mating types. In contrast, no recombination suppression has been observed in heterothallic fungi, where colonies contain only a single mating type. Here, we investigated the evolution of recombination suppression in a clade of dung fungi encompassing 16 pseudo-homothallic and three heterothallic sibling species from the Schizothecium genus (Ascomycota, Sordariales). The analysis of g

SUBMITTER: De Filippo E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12803026 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature