| dynamic linkage relationships to the mating-type locus in automictic fungi of the genus microbotryum. | regions of the chromosomes determining mating compatibility in some fungi, including microbotryum lychnidis-dioicae and neurospora tetrasperma, exhibit suppressed recombination similar to sex chromosomes in plants and animals, and recent studies have sought to apply basic theories of sex chromosome evolution to fungi. a phylogeny of the mtl1 locus in microbotryum indicates that it has become part of the nonrecombining regions of the mating-type chromosomes in multiple independent events, and tha ... | 2010 | 20561135 |
| maintenance of fungal pathogen species that are specialized to different hosts: allopatric divergence and introgression through secondary contact. | sympatry of species that lack complete prezygotic isolation is ideal for the study of how species can be maintained in the face of potential gene flow. this is particularly important in the context of emerging diseases on new hosts because pathogen adaptation is facilitated by reduced gene flow from ancestral populations. here, we investigated divergence and gene flow between two closely related fungal species, microbotryum lychnidis-dioicae and m. silenes-dioicae, causing anther-smut disease on ... | 2011 | 20837605 |
| competition, cooperation among kin, and virulence in multiple infections. | critical determinants of the optimum level of virulence in pathogens include the presence of competitors (i.e., multiple infections), their relatedness, and the effect of competitors on pathogen growth and disease development. empirical data regarding the existence of competitive interactions and their impact on virulence remain very limited compared to theoretical studies. here, we followed an experimental population of the model fungal pathogen microbotryum lychnidis-dioicae on its caryophylla ... | 2010 | 21121914 |
| patterns of repeat-induced point mutation in transposable elements of basidiomycete fungi. | transposable elements (tes) are ubiquitous genomic parasites that have prompted the evolution of genome defense systems that restrict their activity. repeat-induced point mutation (rip) is a homology-dependent genome defense that introduces c-to-t transition mutations in duplicated dna sequences and is thought to control the proliferation of selfish repetitive dna. here, we determine the taxonomic distribution of hypermutation patterns indicative of rip among basidiomycetes. we quantify c-to-t t ... | 2012 | 22250128 |