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INDUCTION OF ANTHERIDIA IN ASCOBOLUS STERCORARIUS
Author(s) -
Bistis G. N.,
Olive L. S.
Publication year - 1968
Publication title -
american journal of botany
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.218
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1537-2197
pISSN - 0002-9122
DOI - 10.1002/j.1537-2197.1968.tb07421.x
Subject(s) - heterothallic , biology , antheridium , mating type , botany , germination , mycelium , genetics , gametophyte , pollen , gene
Sexual organs develop in the hermaphroditic, heterothallic ascomycete Ascobolus stercorarius only when strains of opposite mating‐type are paired under appropriate conditions. A previous study of the two reciprocal compatible interactions, A ‐antheridial/ a ‐ascogonial and a ‐antheridial/ A ‐ascogonial, revealed several differences between them. The present study of the induction of antheridia has uncovered several other differences. Such induction occurred on severed hyphae, non‐germinated oidia and germinated oidia of mating‐type A but not of a under two different sets of conditions: (1) when such elements were placed on an agar medium containing only the secretions of a compatible mycelium, and (2) when they were in close proximity to a second group of compatible non‐germinated or germinating oidia on an agar surface. This tendency for vegetative elements of A to differentiate as male structures more readily than those of a is consistent with the previous observation that the interaction of A ‐antheridial/ a ‐ascogonial is generally the more vigorous one. It may also be responsible for a condition approaching functional sexual dimorphism in many mixed ( A + a ) mycelial cultures.