Aspergillus nidulans

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Aspergillus nidulans
A. nidulans inoculated on a complete fungal medium.
A. nidulans inoculated on a complete fungal medium.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Fungi
Phylum: Ascomycota
Class: Eurotiomycetes
Order: Eurotiales
Family: Trichocomaceae
Genus: Aspergillus
Species: A. nidulans
Binomial name
Aspergillus nidulans
G Winter 1884
Synonyms

Emericella nidulans

Aspergillus nidulans (also called Emericella nidulans) is one of many species of filamentous fungi in the phylum Ascomycota. It has been an important research organism for studying eukaryotic cell biology[1] for over 50 years,[2] being used to study a wide range of subjects including recombination, DNA repair, mutation, cell cycle control, pathogenesis, and metabolism.[3] It is one of the few species in its genus able to form sexual spores through meiosis, allowing crossing of strains in the laboratory. A. nidulans is a homothallic fungus, meaning it is able to self-fertilize and form fruiting bodies in the absence of a mating partner.

[edit] Genome

The genome of A. nidulans, sequenced at the Broad Institute, was published in December 2005. [4] It is 30 million base pairs in size and is predicted to contain around 9,500 protein-coding genes on eight chromosomes.

Recently, several caspase-like proteases were isolated from A.nidulans samples under which programmed cell death had been induced. Findings such as these play a key role in determing the evolutionary conservation of the mitochondrion within the eukaryotic cell, and its role as an ancient proteobacterium capable of inducing cell death.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Osmani SA, Mirabito PM (2004). "The early impact of genetics on our understanding of cell cycle regulation in Aspergillus nidulans". Fungal Genet Biol 41 (4): 401–10. doi:10.1016/j.fgb.2003.11.009. PMID 14998523. 
  2. ^ Martinelli, S. D.; J. R. Kinghorn (1994). Aspergillus: 50 years on. Elsevier. ISBN 0-444-81762-X. 
  3. ^ Nierman WC, May G, Kim HS, Anderson MJ, Chen D, Denning DW (2005). "What the Aspergillus genomes have told us". Med Mycol 43 Suppl 1: S3–5. doi:10.1080/13693780400029049. PMID 16110785. 
  4. ^ Galagan JE et al (2005). "Sequencing of Aspergillus nidulans and comparative analysis with A. fumigatus and A. oryzae". Nature 438 (7071): 1105–15. doi:10.1038/nature04341. PMID 16372000. 

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Major model organisms in genetics
This Ascomycota-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.