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
Author
Kues, U.
Richardson, W.V.J.
Tymon, A.M.
Mutasa-Gottgens, Euphemia
Gottgens, B.
Gaubatz, S.
Gregoriades, A.
Casselton, L.A.
Attention
2299/13229
Abstract
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