Journal
GENETICS
Volume 172, Issue 3, Pages 1545-1555Publisher
GENETICS SOCIETY AMERICA
DOI: 10.1534/genetics.105.051490
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Funding
- NIGMS NIH HHS [R01 GM060468, R01 GM60468] Funding Source: Medline
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Nonself recognition in filamentous fungi is conferred by genetic differences at het. (heterokaryon incompatibility) loci. When individuals that differ in het specificity undergo hyphal fusion, the heterokaryon undergoes a programmed cell death reaction or is highly unstable. In Neurospora crassa, three allelic specificities at the het-c locus are conferred by a highly polymorphic domain. This domain shows trans'-species polymorphisms indicative of balancing selection, consistent with the role of het loci in nonself recognition. We determined that a locus closely linked to het-c, called pin-c (partner for incompatibility with het-c) was required for het-c nonself recognition and heterokaryon incompatibility (HI). The pin-c alleles in isolates that differ in het-c specificity were extremely polymorphic. Heterokaryon and transformation tests showed that nonself recognition was mediated by synergistic nonallelic interactions between het-c and pin-c, while allelic interactions at het-c increased the severity of the HI phenotype. The pin-c locus encodes a protein containing a HET domain; predicted proteins containing HET domains are frequent. in filamentous ascomycete genomes. These data suggest that nonallelic interactions may be important in nonself recognition ill filamentous fungi and that proteins containing a HET domain may be a key factor in these interactions.
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