Sex in the PAC: a hidden affair in dark septate endophytes?

ABSTRACT:

Background

Fungi are asexually and sexually reproducing organisms that can combine the evolutionary advantages of the two reproductive modes. However, for many fungi the sexual cycle has never been observed in the field or in vitro and it remains unclear whether sexual reproduction is absent or cryptic. Nevertheless, there are indirect approaches to assess the occurrence of sex in a species, such as population studies, expression analysis of genes involved in mating processes and analysis of their selective constraints. The members of the Phialocephala fortinii s. l. - Acephala applanata species complex (PAC) are ascomycetes and the predominant dark septate endophytes that colonize woody plant roots. Despite their abundance in many ecosystems of the northern hemisphere, no sexual s

SUBMITTER: Zaffarano PL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3199270 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature