Mating type heterokaryons inPhycomyces blakesleeanus

Genetic damage following introduction of DNA in Phycomyces

“…Practical applications of spheroplasts include their fusion to produce heterokaryons, their incubation with exogenous DNA to produce transformants, and the purification of nuclei and very large DNA molecules. Phycomyces heterokaryons are obtained conveniently with methods that exploit the capacity of this fungus to regenerate (Ootaki, 1973) or undergo cellular fusion during the sexual cycle (Gauger et al, 1980), but the new method should facilitate other applications.…”

Protein–DNA interactions in the promoter region of the Phycomyces carB and carRA genes correlate with the kinetics of their mRNA accumulation in response to light

“…For Phycomyces there is a large amount of information accumulated about several aspects of its biology, including carotenogenesis, effective methods to isolate mutants, the use of heterokaryons for complementation tests (Ootaki, 1973;Gauger et al, 1980;Suárez et al, 1985;Sanz et al, 2002) and the use of sexual genetic analyses (Álvarez and Eslava, 1983;Orejas et al, 1985Orejas et al, , 1987. The disadvantage of this model system is the failure to obtain stable transformants with exogenous DNA.…”

Mutants and Intersexual Heterokaryons of Blakeslea trispora for Production of β-Carotene and Lycopene

“…To construct heterokaryons of Blakeslea, we adapted the method described by Gauger et al (12) for Phycomyces. Pieces of mycelium of two strains of opposite sex were inoculated on potato dextrose agar and incubated until bright yellow bands appeared along the mycelial meeting line.…”

“…Young zygospores of Phycomyces and possibly other surrounding structures with mixed protoplasm may be picked and transferred to fresh medium to produce intersexual heterokaryons that contain nuclei of both sexes (4,12). Similar structures should allow the production of Blakeslea heterokaryons, but the lack of a productive sexual cycle hinders the construction of intersexual diploids.…”