Abstract
A. nidulans has two genes encoding α-tubulin, tubA and tubB, which differ by 28% in their predicted amino acid sequences. Mutational analysis has shown that tubA is essential for mitosis and nuclear migration. We have also deleted the tubB gene and studied the effect of this deletion on growth, development and fertility. tubB deletion strains grow normally, produce normal asexual spores and undergo the early stages of sexual reproduction. However, they are infertile because production of ascospores is completely abolished. We have studied the cytology of sexual development in wild-type strains and tubB deletion strains. The tubB deletion strains develop normally to the stage of ascus formation, but are defective for later stages. Either the two zygotic haploid nuclei are blocked in karyogamy or the resulting diploid nucleus is blocked in meiosis I. Introduction of extra copies of the tubA coding region into tubB deletion strains partially reverses the fertility defect and leads to the production of viable spores.
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© 1993 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Ronald Morris, N., Kirk, K.E. (1993). TubB α-tubulin is essential for sexual development in Aspergillus nidulans . In: Maresca, B., Kobayashi, G.S., Yamaguchi, H. (eds) Molecular Biology and its Application to Medical Mycology. NATO ASI Series, vol 69. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-84625-0_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-84625-0_12
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