Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T08:02:05.704Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Genetical analysis of methionine suppressors in Coprinus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 April 2009

D. Lewis
Affiliation:
Department of Botany, University College London
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Seven different genes, me-1 to me-7, controlling the steps in the synthesis of methionine in the Basidiomycete Coprinus lagopus have been tested for the production of prototrophs on minimal medium. Cultures carrying me-1 and me-7 produced prototrophs spontaneously at a rate of 2·6 × 10−5. These prototrophs were the result of mutations of suppressor genes and not due to back-mutation of the me-gene.

An intensive study of sixty-four mutants of an independent origin suppressing me-1 has revealed five different suppressor loci.

Tests for complementation between suppressor mutants and for their recessiveness to the wild allele were made in dikaryons.

All suppressor mutants were recessive to the wild allele. The five suppressor loci were all separated from one another by recombination, twenty-eight map units being the smallest distance between any two pairs. Mutants of the same locus did not complement one another, with few exceptions. Mutants of different loci, as tested in the trans-position in a dikaryon, complemented one another with the exception of pairs between sup-3, sup-4, and sup-5. Sup-3 and sup-4 are 28 units apart and are independent of sup-5 and yet they did not complement. This unique example of long-distance non-complementation is discussed in terms of gene action.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1961

References

REFERENCES

Case, M. E. & Giles, N. H. (1960). Comparative complementation and genetic maps of pan-2 locus in Neurospora crassa. Proc. nat. Acad. Sci., Wash., 46, 659676.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Catcheside, D. G. & Overton, A. (1958). Complementation between alleles in heterocaryons. Cold Spr. Harb. Symp. quant. Biol. 23, 137140.Google Scholar
Demerec, M. & Hartman, P. E. (1959). Complex loci in microorganisms. Annu. Rev. Micro- biol. 13, 377406.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fischer, G. A. (1957). Cleavage and synthesis of cystathionine in wild type and mutant strains of Neurospora crassa. Biochem. Biophys. Acta 25, 5055.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fries, L.(1953). Factors promoting growth of Coprinus fimetarius (L.) under high temperature conditions. Physiol. Plant. 6, 551563.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giles, N. H. (1951). Studies on the mechanism of reversion in biochemical mutants of Neurospora. Cold Spr. Harb. Symp. quant. Biol. 16, 283313.Google Scholar
Giles, N. H. (1958). Mutations at specific loci in Neurospora crassa. Proc. Xth Int. Conf. Genet. 1, 355.Google Scholar
Koske, T. & Maynard-Smith, J. (1954). Genetics and cytology of Drosophila subobscura. J. Genet. 52, 521–511.Google Scholar
Pontecorvo, G. (1958). Trends in Genetic Analysis. Columbia University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Suskind, S. R. & Kurek, L. D. (1959). On the mechanism of suppressor gene regulation of tryptophan synthetase activity in Neurospora crassa. Proc. nat. Acad. Sci., Wash., 45, 193.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed