The combination of dissimilar alleles of the A alpha and A beta gene complexes, whose proteins contain homeo domain motifs, determines sexual development in the mushroom Coprinus cinereus.
The A mating-type factor is one of two gene complexes that allows mating cells of the mushroom Coprinus cinereus to recognize self from nonself and to regulate a pathway of sexual development that leads to meiosis and sporulation. We have identified seven A genes separated into two subcomplexes corresponding to the classical A alpha and A beta loci. Four genes, one alpha and three beta, all coding for proteins with a homeo domain-related motif, determine A-factor specificity; their allelic forms are so different in sequence that they do not cross-hybridize. It requires only one of these four genes to be heteroallelic in a cell to trigger A-regulated sexual development, and it is the different combinations of their alleles that generate the multiple A factors found in nature. The other three genes cause no change in cell morphology and may regulate the activity of the four specificity genes.
Kües
U
U
School of Biological Sciences, Queen Mary and Westfield College, London, UK.
Richardson
W V
WV
Tymon
A M
AM
Mutasa
E S
ES
Göttgens
B
B
Gaubatz
S
S
Gregoriades
A
A
Casselton
L A
LA
D000483:Alleles; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001345:Autoradiography; D001483:Base Sequence; D001487:Basidiomycota / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D004271:DNA, Fungal / Q000235:genetics; D005801:Genes, Homeobox; D000072235:Mating Factor; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization; D010455:Peptides / Q000235:genetics; D010957:Plasmids; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000235:genetics; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
D004271:DNA, Fungal; D010455:Peptides; D000072235:Mating Factor