Project description:In the parasitic wasp Venturia canescens sexual and asexual populations coexist in sympatry and showed distinct foraging behaviours. By sequencing head transcriptome from sexual and asexual population, we assess transcriptomic divergence between the 2 populations.
Project description:In order to compare sexual and asexual multiplication in Malus domestica we performed mircoarray to study change in gene expression level in our sample.
Project description:In order to compare sexual and asexual multiplication in Malus domestica we performed bisulfite sequencing to study change in differentially methylated region
Project description:Mating pheromone is the best-known fungal paracrine signal whose essentiality in determining sexual reproduction has been recognized since six decades ago. We demonstrate that the pheromone cannot induce mating response during unisexual mating due to the lack of a compatible receptor from the same unisexual population. We identify a quorum sensing (QS) peptide Qsp1 in place of pheromone as a specific intercellular signal directing Cryptococcus unisexual reproduction. A typical zinc finger regulator Cqs2 as the master regulator of QS signaling induces unisexual reproduction in response to Qsp1. Collectively, these data demonstrate that QS activation rather than pheromone induction as the pivotal social control mechanism underlies unisexual reproduction in C .neoformans.
Project description:Many fungi form complex three-dimensional fruiting bodies, within which the meiotic machinery for sexual spore production has been considered to be largely conserved over evolutionary time. Indeed, much of what we know about meiosis in plant and animal taxa has been deeply informed by studies of meiosis in Saccharomyces and Neurospora. Nevertheless, the genetic basis of fruiting body development and its regulation in relation to meiosis in fungi is barely known, even within the best studied multicellular fungal model Neurospora crassa. We characterized morphological development and genome-wide transcriptomics in the closely related species Neurospora crassa, Neurospora tetrasperma, and Neurospora discreta, across eight stages of sexual development. Despite diverse life histories within the genus, all three species produce vase-shaped perithecia. Transcriptome sequencing provided gene expression levels of 2479 orthologous genes among all three species. Expression of key meiosis genes and sporulation genes, corresponded to developmental differences among these Neurospora species during sexual development. Screening N. crassa knockout crosses of genes selected for their expression differences across species, eight genes, whose functions were previously unknown, are found to be critical for the successful formation of perithecia. The absence of these genes in mutant crosses resulted in either no perithecium formation or in arrested development at an early stage. Our results provide insight into the genetic basis of Neurospora sexual reproduction, which is also of great importance with regard to other multicelluar ascomycetes, including fungal pathogens closely related to Neurospora in the Sordariomycetes, such as Fusarium spp, Magnaporthe oryzae, and Nectria haematococca mRNA were sampled and compared from eight time points across sexual reproduction in three Neurospora species