a deviation from the bipolar-tetrapolar mating paradigm in an early diverged basidiomycete偏离bipolar-tetrapolar交配模式在早期分化担子菌类.pdfVIP

A Deviation from the Bipolar-Tetrapolar Mating Paradigm in an Early Diverged Basidiomycete ´ Marco A. Coelho, Jose Paulo Sampaio, Paula Gonc¸alves* ´ ˆ ˆ Centro de Recursos Microbiologicos (CREM), Departamento de Ciencias da Vida, Faculdade de Ciencias e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Caparica, Portugal Abstract In fungi, sexual identity is determined by specialized genomic regions called MAT loci which are the equivalent to sex chromosomes in some animals and plants. Usually, only two sexes or mating types exist, which are determined by two alternate sets of genes (or alleles) at the MAT locus (bipolar system). However, in the phylum Basidiomycota, a unique tetrapolar system emerged in which four different mating types are generated per meiosis. This occurs because two functionally distinct molecular recognition systems, each encoded by one MAT region, constrain the selection of sexual partners. Heterozygosity at both MAT regions is a pre-requisite for mating in both bipolar and tetrapolar basidiomycetes. Tetrapolar mating behaviour results from the absence of genetic linkage between the two regions bringing forth up to thousands of mating types. The subphylum Pucciniomycotina, an early diverged lineage of basidiomycetes encompassing important plant pathogens such as the rusts and saprobes like Rhodosporidium and Sporidiobolus, has been so far poorly explored concerning the content and organization of MAT loci. Here we show that the red yeast Sporidiobolus salmonicolor has a mating system unlike any previously described because occasional disruptions of the genetic cohesion of the bipolar MAT locus originate new mating types. We confirmed that mating is normally bip