Abstract
Molecular biology has several distinct origins, but especially important are those contributed by fungal and yeast physiology, biochemistry and genetics. From the first gene action studies that became the basis of our understanding of the relationship between genes and proteins, through chromosome structure, mitochondrial genetics and membrane biogenesis, gene silencing and circadian clocks, studies with these organisms have yielded basic insight into these processes applicable to all eukaryotes. Examples are cited of pioneering studies with fungi that have stimulated new research in clinical medicine and agriculture; these studies include sexual interactions, cell stress responses, the cytoskeleton and pathogenesis. Studies with the yeasts and fungi have been effective in applying the techniques and insights gained from other types of experimental systems to research in fungal cell signalling, cell development and hyphal morphogenesis.
Highlights
This text (Foster, 1949) summarized the field, reviewing organic acid metabolism, the chemical nature of the mould mycelium, nutrition, nitrogen metabolism, advances in penicillin production, and new methodologies in mould metabolism. He was determined not merely to catalogue composition and observations, but to provide a comparison of active biochemical systems, or ‘transformations effected by fungi’. His approach was modern in spirit, focusing on experimentation, but even more so when he excitedly described the recent accomplishments in biochemical genetics and the Beadle and Tatum work (Beadle & Tatum, 1941)
Do we study fungi to solve problems in technology, agriculture and human health or to ask and answer larger questions about cell biology, genetics, development and biochemistry? Do we study the physiology of applied science or the molecular biology of model systems?
Rowland Davis points out that given the absence of knowledge about the structure of proteins, the identity of the genetic material, the organization of chromosomes, and most metabolic pathways, it was not clear how to trace causal relations between mutation and phenotype of complex organisms (Davis, 2000). It was this determined attempt to trace these causal relations by Beadle and Tatum and their colleagues and students, through genetic, physiological and biochemical studies, that led to the generalized understanding of gene action and interaction as well as to methodological techniques for mutant generation and analysis that were formative and essential to the new field of biochemical genetics
Summary
Molecular biology has several distinct origins, but especially important are those contributed by fungal and yeast physiology, biochemistry and genetics. From the first gene action studies that became the basis of our understanding of the relationship between genes and proteins, through chromosome structure, mitochondrial genetics and membrane biogenesis, gene silencing and circadian clocks, studies with these organisms have yielded basic insight into these processes applicable to all eukaryotes. Examples are cited of pioneering studies with fungi that have stimulated new research in clinical medicine and agriculture; these studies include sexual interactions, cell stress responses, the cytoskeleton and pathogenesis. Studies with the yeasts and fungi have been effective in applying the techniques and insights gained from other types of experimental systems to research in fungal cell signalling, cell development and hyphal morphogenesis
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