Keywords: Neurospora

Isolation of rfk-2 (UV) , a mutation that blocks spore killing by Neurospora Spore killer-3

A. Velazquez, E. Webber, D. O'Neil, T. Hammond and N. Rhoades,  MicroPublication Biology,  2022.
Neurospora Spore killer-3 ( Sk-3 ) is a selfish genetic element that kills spores to achieve gene drive.  Here, to help identify Sk-3’s killer, we performed a genetic screen for required for killing (rfk) mutations (see methods). The genetic screen uses Sk‑3 rskΔ × SkS ...
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An introgressed gene causes meiotic drive in Neurospora sitophila

J. Svedberg, A. A. Vogan, N. A. Rhoades, D. Sarmarajeewa, D. J. Jacobson, M. Lascoux, T. M. Hammond and H. Johannesson,  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America,  118:9. 2021.
Meiotic drive elements cause their own preferential transmission following meiosis. In fungi, this phenomenon takes the shape of spore killing, and in the filamentous ascomycete Neurospora sitophila, the Sk-1 spore killer element is found in many natural populations. In this ...
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Invasion and maintenance of spore killers in populations of ascomycete fungi

I. Martinossi-Allibert, C. Veller, S. L. Ament-Velásquez, A. A. Vogan, C. Rueffler and H. Johannesson,  bioRxiv,  2020.04.06.026989. 2020.
We show how ploidy level, rate of selfing, and efficiency of spore killing affect the invasion probability of a driving allele and the conditions for its stable coexistence with the non-driving allele. Our model can be adapted to different fungal life-cycles, and is applied here ...
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The Enterprise: A massive transposon carrying Spokt meiotic drive genes

A. A. Vogan, S. L. Ament-Velásquez, E. Bastiaans, O. Wallerman, S. J. Saupe, A. Suh and H. Johannesson,  bioRxiv,  2020.03.25.007153. 2020.
Previously, we described a large genomic feature called the Spok block which is notable due to the presence of meiotic drive genes of the Spok gene family. The Spok block ranges from 110 kb to 247 kb and can be present in at least four different genomic locations within P. ...
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An introgressed gene causes meiotic drive in Neurospora sitophila

J. Svedberg, A. A. Vogan, N. A. Rhoades, D. Sarmarajeewa, D. J. Jacobson, M. Lascoux, T. M. Hammond and H. Johannesson,  bioRxiv,  2020.01.29.923946. 2020.
In this study, we identify the gene responsible for spore killing in Sk-1 by generating both long and short-read genomic data and by using these data to perform a genome wide association test. By phylogenetic analysis, we demonstrate that the gene is likely to have been ...
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Identification of fk-1;, a Meiotic Driver Undergoing RNA Editing in Neurospora

N. A. Rhoades, A. M. Harvey, D. A. Samarajeewa, J. Svedberg, A. Yusifov, A. Abusharekh, P. Manitchotpisit, D. W. Brown, K. J. Sharp, D. G. Rehard, J. Peters, X. Ostolaza-Maldonado, J. Stephenson, P. K. T. Shiu, H. Johannesson and T. M. Hammond,  Genetics,  212:93. 2019.
These findings indicate that unedited and edited rfk-1 transcripts exist and that these transcripts could have different roles with respect to the mechanism of meiotic drive by spore killing. Regardless of RNA editing, spore killing only succeeds if rfk-1 transcripts avoid ...
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