A light-sensing system in the common ancestor of the fungi.

ABSTRACT: Diverse light-sensing organs (i.e., eyes) have evolved across animals. Interestingly, several subcellular analogs have been found in eukaryotic microbes.¹ All of these systems have a common "recipe": a light occluding or refractory surface juxtaposed to a membrane-layer enriched in type I rhodopsins.^1-4 In the fungi, several lineages have been shown to detect light using a diversity of non-homologous photo-responsive proteins.^5-7 However, these systems are not associated with an eyespot-like organelle with one exception found in the zoosporic fungus Blastocladiella emersonii (Be).⁸Be possesses both elements of this recipe: an eyespot composed of lipid-filled structures (often called the side-body complex [SBC]), co-localized with a membrane enric

SUBMITTER: Galindo LJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9616733 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature