Abstract
The vegetative life cycle in the model filamentous fungus, Neurospora crassa, relies on the development of conidiophores to produce new spores. Environmental, temporal, and genetic components of conidiophore development have been well characterized; however, little is known about their morphological variation. We explored conidiophore architectural variation in a natural population using a wild population collection of 21 strains from Louisiana, United States of America (USA). Our work reveals three novel architectural phenotypes, Wild Type, Bulky, and Wrap, and shows their maintenance throughout the duration of conidiophore development. Furthermore, we present a novel image-classifier using a convolutional neural network specifically developed to assign conidiophore architectural phenotypes in a high-throughput manner. To estimate an inheritance model for this discrete complex trait, crosses between strains of each phenotype were conducted, and conidiophores of subsequent progeny were characterized using the trained classifier. Our model suggests that conidiophore architecture is controlled by at least two genes and has a heritability of 0.23. Additionally, we quantified the number of conidia produced by each conidiophore type and their dispersion distance, suggesting that conidiophore architectural phenotype may impact N. crassa colonization capacity.
Highlights
Neurospora crassa propagates asexually through the dissemination of haploid spores, conidia, which develop via specialized aerial structures called conidiophores [1]
Conidiophores were classified by their morphology into three groups that are hereafter referred to as Wild Type (WT), Bulky, and Wrap
Conidiophore development in N. crassa has been thoroughly documented over decades of study [31]
Summary
Neurospora crassa propagates asexually through the dissemination of haploid spores, conidia, which develop via specialized aerial structures called conidiophores [1]. Development of conidiophores is under strict environmental and temporal control, requiring cues such as desiccation, nutrient deprivation, and light exposure for its induction [3]. After exposure to these environmental triggers, aerial hyphae grow perpendicular to the preceding mycelial mat to stimulate conidiophore development. The organism subsequently undergoes a series of constriction budding followed by crosswall formations until eventual sporulation, roughly 10 hours (h) following the beginning of this process [4] It is through this dissemination of conidia that the vegetative life cycle can propagate, allowing new filaments to germinate after a period of dormancy. Temporal, and genetic components of conidiophore development in N. crassa have been well characterized [7], little is known about morphological variation of these structures, in natural populations
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