Abstract
The name Aspergillus nidulans means “holy-water sprinkler making small nests,” the first part referring to the brush-like form of the asexual reproductive apparatus, and the second to the sexual fruiting bodies and their surrounding cells. A. nidulans is a filamentous fungus related to many industrially important species such as Penicillium chrysogenum and Aspergillus niger. The genetics of A. nidulans have been extensively explored following the lead of Pontecorvo and his colleagues. It is this organism in which the parasexual (mitotic) genetic cycle was first described, and it has frequently been used as a model for the investigation of parasexual genetics. Even so, A. nidulans possesses an active sexual system which is also used extensively in genetic analysis. The life cycle of A. nidulans, illustrated in Fig. 1, has three phases: vegetative mycelium, sexual cycle, and asexual cycle. The asexual cycle is the topic of this chapter.
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