Genetics and Genomics Commons^™

Analysis Of Morphology And Secretion Mutants In Aspergillus Nidulans, Shelby N. Holaday, Steven D. Harris

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Filamentous fungi are important economically and medically due to their capacity to produce secondary metabolites or as human and animal pathogens. The genes and molecular mechanism responsible for secretion is poorly understood. Using classical genetics, we derived temperature sensitive (Ts) fungal mutants in Aspergillis nidulans. These mutants were then analyzed for their secondary metabolite secretion capacity.

In this study, we used the Ts strains of A. nidulans to determine how knockouts affect morphological and protein secretion by examining the phenotypes under the microscope and also by staining the mutants with Congo red staining. Mutants were stained with Congo red to …

Is A Mitochondrial Plasmid Really A Virus?, Mackenzie Strehle

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In addition to containing a large and complex mitochondrial genome, the mitochondria of several species of plants have been shown to contain an independent, self-replicating DNA molecule in the form of a plasmid. Plants in the Brassica genus contain a linear plasmid that is approximately 11.6 kilobases in length. The plasmid is characterized by the presence of terminal inverted repeats and covalently bonded proteins at its termini (Handa 2008). The plasmid also contains six ORFs that encode DNA and RNA polymerases and a number of unknown proteins (Figure 1). Currently, both the function of this plasmid and the mechanisms by …

Genetic Factors Affecting Hybrid Male Sterility Leading To Speciation, Patrick Opperman, Colin D. Meiklejohn

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The process whereby speciation occurs can come about through the evolution of barriers to gene flow. One of these barriers to gene flow can be an incompatibility, which leaves hybrids dead or sterile. Two theories underlie the work of this experiment, Haldane’s Rule and the large X effect. Haldane’s Rule is the observation that unisexual inviability or sterility among species’ hybrids is almost always found in the heterogametic sex. The large X effect is the observation that substitution of one species’ X-chromosome for another’s has a disproportionately large effect on hybrid fitness compared to similar substitution of an autosome. For …