Nuclear behavior and evolution of two
populations of the western gall rust fungus
Vogler, D. R., Epstein, L, and Cobb, F. W., Jr.
1997.
Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management,
University of California, Berkeley.
Mycological Research 101(7):791-797.
Abstract
Peridermium harknessii, cause of western gall rust of pines,
comprises two populations of multilocus electrophoretic types
(zymodemes) in the western United States. When stained with a
DNA-specific fluorochrome, mature, ungerminated aeciospores from
zymodeme I were found to be predominantly binucleate (70%), as were
those of the related macrocyclic species, Cronartium quercuum
(74%), whereas aeciospores from zymodeme II were predominantly
uninucleate (93%). Within each zymodeme, aeciospores with two nuclei
had significantly (P = 0.01) more DNA than spores with one nucleus,
and numbers of nuclei in germlings increased arithmetically over
time. These data suggest that aeciospore nuclei in both zymodemes I
and II divide mitotically, not meiotically, as is consistent with an
asexual life cycle.
Photometric measurements also indicated that the amount of DNA in
one nucleus of a uninucleate zymodeme II aeciospore was similar to
the total amount of DNA in a binucleate zymodeme I aeciospore. These
data, coupled with recent isozyme studies, suggest either that
zymodeme II evolved after karyogamy of zymodeme I and an unidentified
zymodeme, or that zymodeme I evolved after haploidization of zymodeme
II.
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