Sexual Reproduction in Aspergillus flavus Sclerotia: Acquisition of Novel Alleles from Soil Populations and Uniparental Mitochondrial Inheritance.

ABSTRACT: Aspergillus flavus colonizes agricultural commodities worldwide and contaminates them with carcinogenic aflatoxins. The high genetic diversity of A. flavus populations is largely due to sexual reproduction characterized by the formation of ascospore-bearing ascocarps embedded within sclerotia. A. flavus is heterothallic and laboratory crosses between strains of the opposite mating type produce progeny showing genetic recombination. Sclerotia formed in crops are dispersed onto the soil surface at harvest and are predominantly produced by single strains of one mating type. Less commonly, sclerotia may be fertilized during co-infection of crops with sexually compatible strains. In this study, laboratory and field experiments were performed to examine sexual reproduction in single-strain and f

SUBMITTER: Horn BW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4701395 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature