Lehrstuhl für Allgemeine und Molekulare Botanik, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 44780 Bochum, Germany.
Eur J Cell Biol. 2010 Dec;89(12):864-72. doi: 10.1016/j.ejcb.2010.07.002. Epub 2010 Aug 24.
During the development of multicellular eukaryotes, the processes of cellular growth and organogenesis are tightly coordinated. Since the 1940s, filamentous fungi have served as genetic model organisms to decipher basic mechanisms underlying eukaryotic cell differentiation. Here, we focus on Sordaria macrospora, a homothallic ascomycete and important model organism for developmental biology. During its sexual life cycle, S. macrospora forms three-dimensional fruiting bodies, a complex process involving the formation of different cell types. S. macrospora can be used for genetic, biochemical and cellular experimental approaches since diverse tools, including fluorescence microscopy, a marker recycling system and gene libraries, are available. Moreover, the genome of S. macrospora has been sequenced and allows functional genomics analyses. Over the past years, our group has generated and analysed a number of developmental mutants which has greatly enhanced our fundamental understanding about fungal morphogenesis. In addition, our recent research activities have established a link between developmental proteins and conserved signalling cascades, ultimately leading to a regulatory network controlling differentiation processes in a eukaryotic model organism. This review summarizes the results of our recent findings, thus advancing current knowledge of the general principles and paradigms underpinning eukaryotic cell differentiation and development.
在多细胞真核生物的发育过程中，细胞生长和器官发生的过程是紧密协调的。自 20 世纪 40 年代以来，丝状真菌一直被用作遗传模式生物，以揭示真核细胞分化的基本机制。在这里，我们重点介绍 Sordaria macrospora，一种同宗配合的子囊菌，也是发育生物学的重要模式生物。在其有性生命周期中，S. macrospora 形成三维的子实体，这是一个复杂的过程，涉及不同细胞类型的形成。S. macrospora 可用于遗传、生化和细胞实验方法，因为有多种工具可用，包括荧光显微镜、标记回收系统和基因文库。此外，S. macrospora 的基因组已经测序，并允许进行功能基因组学分析。在过去的几年中，我们的研究小组已经生成和分析了许多发育突变体，这极大地提高了我们对真菌形态发生的基本理解。此外，我们最近的研究活动已经建立了发育蛋白与保守信号级联之间的联系，最终导致了一个调控网络，控制着真核模式生物分化过程。这篇综述总结了我们最近的发现结果，从而推进了真核细胞分化和发育的普遍原理和范例的现有知识。
