title: Rearrangements of the transposable mating-type cassettes of fission yeast.
abstract: The fission yeast, Schizosaccharomyces pombe, switches mating type every few cell divisions. Switching is controlled by the genes of the mating-type locus, which consists of three components, mat1, mat2-P and mat3-M, each separated by approximately 15 kb. Copy transposition of P (Plus) or M (Minus) information from mat2-P or mat3-M into the expression locus mat1 mediates cell type switching. The mating-type locus undergoes events at high frequency (10(-2)-10(-6)) which stabilize one or other mating type. These events are shown to be rearrangements which result in either deletion or insertion of DNA between cassettes.
mesh_terms: D001203:Ascomycota / Q000235:genetics*; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D004271:DNA, Fungal / Q000235:genetics; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D008040:Genetic Linkage; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D012098:Reproduction; D012568:Schizosaccharomyces / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D004271:DNA, Fungal