Evolution of Mating Systems in Basidiomycetes and the Genetic Architecture Underlying Mating-Type Determination in the Yeast Leucosporidium scottii.

ABSTRACT: In most fungi, sexual reproduction is bipolar; that is, two alternate sets of genes at a single mating-type (MAT) locus determine two mating types. However, in the Basidiomycota, a unique (tetrapolar) reproductive system emerged in which sexual identity is governed by two unlinked MAT loci, each of which controls independent mechanisms of self/nonself recognition. Tetrapolar-to-bipolar transitions have occurred on multiple occasions in the Basidiomycota, resulting, for example, from linkage of the two MAT loci into a single inheritable unit. Nevertheless, owing to the scarcity of molecular data regarding tetrapolar systems in the earliest-branching lineage of the Basidiomycota (subphylum Pucciniomycotina), it is presently unclear if the last common ancestor was tetrapolar or bipolar. Here,

SUBMITTER: Maia TM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4566278 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature