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Isolation and Analysis of Amoebal–Plasmodial Transition Mutants in the Myxomycete Physarum polycephalum

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 April 2009

R. W. Anderson  and
Jennifer Dee
R. W. Anderson
Affiliation:
Department of Genetics, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, England
Jennifer Dee
Affiliation:
Department of Genetics, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, England

Summary

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Plasmodium formation in the Myxomycete Physarum polycephalum normally involves fusion of haploid amoebae, carrying different alleles at the mating type (mt) locus, to give diploid plasmodia. Strains carrying the mth allele are capable of undergoing the amoebal–plasmodial transition with high efficiency within amoebal clones, resulting in the formation of haploid plasmodia. NMG mutagenesis of mth amoebae, followed by an enrichment procedure, was used to isolate mutants in which such clonal plasmodium formation was either delayed or absent. Thirteen mutants of the second type were analysed. Three of these were temperature-sensitive for plasmodium formation. All thirteen mutants were able to form diploid crossed plasmodia when mixed with a mt1 strain. Three new genes were identified and designated npfA, npfB and npfC. A mutant allele of npfA rendered clonal plasmodium formation temperature-sensitive, but did not prevent crossing at the non-permissive temperature with derived strains carrying the same mutant allele. No recombination was detected between npfB or npfC and mt, but npfA was unlinked to mt and a locus (apt-1) shown in a previous study to be involved in plasmodium formation. The genes npfB and npfC were distinguished by complementation analysis. Strains of the genotype npfB−; npfC+ behaved in the same way as strains carrying the mt2 allele. The nature of the mutants and the role of the mating-type locus in the initiation of plasmodium formation are discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Genetics Research , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , February 1977 , pp. 21 - 34
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1977

References

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