Analysis of conversion tracts associated with recombination events at the am locus of Neurospora crassa

Abstract

In cross B163, heteroallelic am¹am⁶ and heterozygous for both conventional genetic flanking markers and closer molecular markers, we previously found that the majority on flanker exchanges were remote from events that generated prototrophic recombinants. We report here that natural polymorphisms distinguishing the parents of cross B163 also include sequences within and closely flanking am. Segregation of these markers in B163 prototrophs confirms that the majority of meiotic recombination events at am resulted from gene conversion. Conversion of am⁶, the distal allele, is more frequent than conversion of am¹. Twelve percent of tracts in am⁶ convertants were discontinuous while 30% of continuous tracts converting am⁶ extend less than 741 bp.