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PMID: 10611332 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

The mating-type and pathogenicity locus of the fungus Ustilago hordei spans a 500-kb region.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America ·Vol. 96 ·No. 26 ·1999-12-21 ·Pages 15026-31

Lee N, Bakkeren G, Wong K, Sherwood JE, Kronstad JW

Abstract

The fungal pathogen Ustilago hordei causes the covered smut disease of barley and oats. Mating and pathogenicity in this fungus are controlled by the MAT locus, which contains two distinct gene complexes, a and b. In this study, we tagged the a and b regions with the recognition sequence for the restriction enzyme I-SceI and determined that the distance between the complexes is 500 kb in a MAT-1 strain and 430 kb in a MAT-2 strain. Characterization of the organization of the known genes within the a and b gene complexes provided evidence for nonhomology and sequence inversion between MAT-1 and MAT-2. Antibiotic-resistance markers also were used to tag the a gene complex in MAT-1 strains (phleomycin) and the b gene complex in MAT-2 strains (hygromycin). Crosses were performed with these strains and progeny resistant to both antibiotics were recovered at a very low frequency, suggesting that recombination is suppressed within the MAT region. Overall, the chromosome homologues carrying the MAT locus of U. hordei share features with primitive sex chromosomes, with the added twist that the MAT locus also controls pathogenicity.

MeSH Terms
Avena/microbiology Chromosome Mapping Chromosomes, Fungal Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field Genes, Fungal Genes, Mating Type, Fungal Hordeum/microbiology Mating Factor Peptides Plant Diseases/genetics Recombination, Genetic Reproduction/genetics Ustilago/genetics,pathogenicity
Chemicals
Peptides Mating Factor
Authors & Affiliations
5 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Lee N
Biotechnology Laboratory, Department of Microbiology University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z3.
Bakkeren G
Wong K
Sherwood J E
Kronstad J W
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Article Info
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Abbr.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
ISSN
0027-8424
DOI
10.1073/pnas.96.26.15026
Published
1999-12-21
Pages
15026-31
Language
English
Region
United States
NLM ID
7505876
PMCID
PMC24767
Subset
IM
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1073/pnas.96.26.15026 PMC Full Text View journal details
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