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Growth, Differentiation and Sexuality

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20 Meiosis in Mycelial Fungi<br />

D. Zickler 1<br />

CONTENTS<br />

I. Introduction ......................... 415<br />

II. Entering Meiosis: Mycelial Fungi Devote<br />

Significant Resources to Make Sure that the<br />

Two Nuclei that Will Fuse Before Entering<br />

Meiosis Have Identical Genomes .......... 416<br />

A. Karyogamy <strong>and</strong> Premeiotic Replication . . 417<br />

B. Premeiotic “Checking <strong>and</strong> Cleaning”<br />

Mechanisms....................... 418<br />

C. A “Checking” Mechanism<br />

thatOperatesAfterKaryogamy ........ 419<br />

III. Meiotic Recombination ................. 419<br />

A. Initiation ......................... 419<br />

B. From Initiation<br />

toRecombinationProducts ........... 420<br />

C. Meiotic Exchanges Are Highly Regulated . 421<br />

IV. Homologue Recognition <strong>and</strong> Pairing ...... 422<br />

A. Mycelial Fungi Offer Unique<br />

Opportunities for the Analysis<br />

ofHomologousPairing .............. 423<br />

B. HowDoesPairingOccur?............. 423<br />

C. The Bouquet Stage: a Specific<br />

ConfigurationofMeiosis ............. 424<br />

D. Chromosome Interlocking:<br />

a Universal Complication of Pairing . . . . . 425<br />

V. The Synaptonemal Complex <strong>and</strong> Synapsis . . 425<br />

A. Synaptonemal Complex Formation . . . . . 426<br />

B. Ascomycetes Exhibit Several Peculiarities<br />

in the Synaptonemal Complex Formation<br />

<strong>and</strong>Morphology ................... 426<br />

C. Synaptonemal Complex<br />

<strong>and</strong>theRecombinationProcess........ 427<br />

D. Recombination Nodules,<br />

the Substructures of the Synaptonemal<br />

Complex that Correlate with Crossover<br />

<strong>and</strong>NoncrossoverExchanges.......... 427<br />

VI. Meiotic Chromosome Segregation<br />

or how to Resolve Sister-Chromatid<br />

Cohesion in Two Steps .................. 428<br />

A. Chromosome <strong>and</strong> Sister-Chromatid<br />

Segregation Are Mediated<br />

bytheCohesinComplex.............. 429<br />

B. Other Proteins Important<br />

for Sister-Chromatid Cohesion<br />

<strong>and</strong>Segregation.................... 430<br />

VII. From Meiosis to Sporulation ............. 430<br />

VIII. Concluding Remarks ................... 431<br />

References ........................... 432<br />

1 Université Paris-Sud, Institut de Génétique et Microbiologie, Bâtiment<br />

400, 91405 Orsay cedex, France<br />

I. Introduction<br />

Meiosis is a highly conserved process, occupying<br />

a central role in most eukaryote life cycles. The<br />

meiotic process, in contrast to the mitotic process,<br />

reduces the diploid cellular genome complement<br />

by half, as required for sexual reproduction <strong>and</strong><br />

fecundation. The reduction in chromosome number<br />

is achieved by one round of DNA replication,<br />

followed by two rounds of divisions with no intervening<br />

replication. The absolute need for each<br />

gamete to inherit a copy of the genome is achieved<br />

bythefactthatpaternal<strong>and</strong>maternalhomologous<br />

chromosomes segregate to opposite poles during<br />

the first meiotic division, whereas their sister chromatids<br />

segregate at the second division.<br />

Mycelial fungi provide several positive attributes<br />

for studying meiosis. First, they have<br />

a brief life cycle during which several hundred<br />

meiocytes <strong>and</strong> the resulting gametes (asco- <strong>and</strong><br />

basidiospores) can be analyzed.<br />

Second, the four products of a single meiosis<br />

are held together in a single cell (ascus or<br />

basidium). This allows the determination of the<br />

genetic constitution of each of the DNA str<strong>and</strong>s<br />

involved in meiosis. Moreover, in species with<br />

linearly arranged ascospores, the position of each<br />

ascospore reflects the preceding nuclear divisions.<br />

When in some of these species a mitotic division<br />

occurs after meiosis, each of the resulting eight<br />

haploid nuclei represents the genetic character of<br />

one of the eight DNA str<strong>and</strong>s of the chromosomes<br />

produced by meiosis (e.g., Perkins 1974, 1997). The<br />

popularity of Neurospora crassa, Sordaria fimicola,<br />

Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Schizosaccharomyces<br />

pombe, Aspergillus nidulans, Ascobolus immersus,<br />

Podospora anserina, Sordaria macrospora, Schizophyllum<br />

commune <strong>and</strong> Coprinus cinereus (now<br />

called Coprinopsis cinerea) for a wide variety of<br />

genetic studies on meiotic recombination reflects<br />

these exceptional advantages (review in Esser <strong>and</strong><br />

Kuenen 1967; Whitehouse 1982; Lamb 1996).<br />

The Mycota I<br />

<strong>Growth</strong>, Differentation <strong>and</strong> <strong>Sexuality</strong><br />

Kües/Fischer (Eds.)<br />

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006

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