Sex determination in the first-described sexual fungus.

ABSTRACT: The original report of sex in fungi dates 2 centuries ago to the species Syzygites megalocarpus (Mucoromycotina). The organism was subsequently used in 1904 to represent self-fertile homothallic species when the concepts of heterothallism and homothallism were developed for the fungal kingdom. In this study, two putative sex/MAT loci were identified in individual strains of S. megalocarpus, accounting for its homothallic behavior. The strains encode both of the high-mobility-group domain-containing proteins, SexM and SexP, flanked by RNA helicase and glutathione oxidoreductase genes that are found adjacent to the mating-type loci in other Mucoromycotina species. The presence of pseudogenes and the arrangement of genes suggest that the origin of homothallism in this species is from a hetero

SUBMITTER: Idnurm A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3209044 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature