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Fungal biology

To mate or not to mate?

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 3, page 665 (2005)Cite this article

Genetic analyses in the aspergilli have been hindered because this group is mainly asexual (imperfect). Inspection of the recently completed genome sequences of Aspergillus nidulans (a model for cell biology), A. fumigatus and Aspergillus oryzae (important in the industrial production of soy sauce) revealed that A. fumigatus has a mating-type locus that is typical of sexual ascomycete fungi. This warranted further investigation, as improved genetic analyses alone would be a welcome boon for researchers keen to understand the virulence of this pathogen.

Although finding seemingly intact mating-type genes is exciting, it only indicates the potential for sex. In a paper just published in Current Biology, Paoletti et al. report experimental evidence for sex. Sex is not possible without two partner strains, which in filamentous ascomycetes are named MAT1-1 and MAT1-2, so finding two distinct mating-type alleles was the first important endeavour. The sequenced strain has a MAT1-2 locus. Degenerate PCR was used to amplify a putative MAT1-1 sequence (the α box) from environmental isolates. One interesting feature that arose when the sequence of this MAT1-1 locus was completed was that it contained some MAT1-2 sequences, indicating that the sexual partner strains might be derived from a homothallic ancestor that contained both loci.

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. Paoletti, M. et al. Evidence for sexuality in the opportunistic fungal pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus. Curr. Biol. 15, 1242–1248 (2005)

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  1. Susan Jones
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Jones, S. To mate or not to mate?. Nat Rev Microbiol 3, 665 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro1243

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