Molecular biology of mating-type determination in Schizophyllum commune.

Abstract

Fungi are masters of genetics. This feature has not escaped the awareness of either classical or molecular geneticists (1). The prowess of fungi at recombining genes in both the sexual and asexual modes of their life cycles and the diversity of developmental and metabolic pathways in which they regulate expression of their genes has been, so to speak “fertile mycelium” for investigation. No less important, the simplicity of their life cycles and the facility with which many fungal species can be manipulated in the laboratory have contributed immensely to their popularity in experimental genetics. The rationale for genetic study of fungi has been that they would reveal genetically interesting, biologically significant and economically important attributes of the fungi. The correctness of this rationale has been proven repeatedly, and today the relevance of these studies is being confirmed by the finding that fungi and higher cells share many analogous and homologous molecules, pathways and mechanisms (2). These commonalities extend to the basic mechanisms by which fungi and higher cells regulate the expression of their genetic information during development (3–6).KeywordsMating TypeSexual DevelopmentClamp ConnectionHomeodomain ProteinSchizophyllum CommuneThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.