Volume 32, Number 1, 52-59, DOI: 10.1007/s002940050247

Self-fertility and uni-directional mating-type switching in Ceratocystis coerulescens, a filamentous ascomycete

T. C. Harrington and D. L. McNew

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Abstract

Individual perithecia from selfings of most Ceratocystis species produce both self-fertile and self-sterile progeny, apparently due to uni-directional mating-type switching. In C. coerulescens, male-only mutants of otherwise hermaphroditic and self-fertile strains were self-sterile and were used in crossings to demonstrate that this species has two mating-types. Only MAT-2 strains are capable of selfing, and half of the progeny from a MAT-2 selfing are MAT-1. Male-only, MAT-2 mutants are self-sterile and cross only with MAT-1 strains. Similarly, self-fertile strains generally cross with only MAT-1 strains. MAT-1 strains only cross with MAT-2 strains and never self. It is hypothesized that the switch in mating-type during selfing is associated with a deletion of the MAT-2 gene.

Key words Homothallism - Mating-type switching - Hermaphroditism - Ceratocystis

Received: 6 July 1996 / 25 March 1997

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