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.
School of Biological Sciences, Queen Mary and Westfield College, London, UK.
U
U
Kües
W V
WV
Richardson
A M
AM
Tymon
E S
ES
Mutasa
B
B
Göttgens
S
S
Gaubatz
A
A
Gregoriades
L A
LA
Casselton
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