Abstract
Ustilago maydis is a dimorphic fungal pathogen of corn. One form is yeast-like and non-pathogenic; the other is filamentous and pathogenic. The two loci a and b with two and 25 different alleles, respectively, regulate this dimorphism. Any combination of two different alleles at both loci allows cell fusion and triggers pathogenic development. The cloning and analysis of different b alleles revealed that they contain a single open reading frame of 410 amino acids with a variable N-terminal region and a highly conserved C-terminal region. The constant region contains a motif characteristic for homeodomain proteins suggesting that combinatorial interactions between b polypeptides generate regulatory proteins that determine the developmental program of the fungus.We report here the localization of allele specificity determinants in b, the construction of a b-null mutant and the cloning of the gene loci a1 and a2.
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Dahl, M., Bölker, M., Gillissen, B., Schauwecker, F., Schroeer, B., Kahmann, R. (1991). The B Locus of Ustilago Maydis: Molecular Analysis of Allele Specificity. In: Hennecke, H., Verma, D.P.S. (eds) Advances in Molecular Genetics of Plant-Microbe Interactions Vol. 1. Current Plant Science and Biotechnology in Agriculture, vol 10. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-7934-6_40
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-7934-6_40
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