Neurospora crassa a mating-type region.
The a mating-type region of Neurospora crassa controls several major events in both the sexual and asexual phases of the fungal life cycle. This 3235-base-pair DNA segment is not homologous to the comparable genetic region of the A mating type. The unique a and A regions are bordered by nearly identical DNA sequences. The a genetic region contains at least two functional segments. One segment encodes a perithecium maturation function that is dependent on the second segment for phenotypic expression. This second a segment encodes a spliced mRNA that specifies the mt a-1 polypeptide. This polypeptide appears to be responsible for vegetative incompatibility, mating identity, and perithecium induction. The a-1 transcript is produced vegetatively and under conditions that induce sexual differentiation. The amino-terminal half of the mt a-1 polypeptide is homologous to the shorter Schizosaccharomyces pombe mat-Mc polypeptide. This homology and the properties of mt a-1 mutants suggest that the a-1 polypeptide segment that is homologous to the mat-Mc polypeptide may be primarily responsible for mating functions, while the distal segment is required for vegetative incompatibility.
Staben
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Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, CA 94305-5020.
Yanofsky
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D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001483:Base Sequence; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004271:DNA, Fungal / Q000235:genetics; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics; D005800:Genes, Fungal; D049770:Genes, Mating Type, Fungal; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009491:Neurospora / Q000235:genetics*; D009492:Neurospora crassa / Q000235:genetics*; D010675:Pheromones / Q000235:genetics; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D012568:Schizosaccharomyces / Q000235:genetics; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D014170:Transformation, Genetic
D004271:DNA, Fungal; D010675:Pheromones; D012333:RNA, Messenger