Mating type locus of Chinese black truffles reveals heterothallism and the presence of cryptic species within the T. indicum species complex.

ABSTRACT: Tuber spp. are filamentous ascomycetes which establish symbiosis with the roots of trees and shrub species. By virtue of this symbiosis they produce hypogeous ascocarps, known as truffles. Filamentous ascomycetes can reproduce by homothallism or heterothallism depending on the structure and organization of their mating type locus. The first mating type locus in a truffle species has been recently characterized in Tuber melanosporum and it has been shown that this fungus, endemic in Europe, is heterothallic. The availability of sequence information for T. melanosporum mating type genes is seminal to cloning their orthologs from other Tuber species and assessing their reproductive mode. Here we report on the organization of the mating type region in T. indicum, the black truffle species pres

SUBMITTER: Belfiori B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3864998 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature