Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-5020, and Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720-3102.
Mycologia. 2004 Jan-Feb;96(1):66-74.
The fungal genus Neurospora has a distinguished history as a laboratory model in genetics and biochemistry. The most recent milestone in this history has been the sequencing of the genome of the best known species, N. crassa. The hope and promise of a complete genome sequence is a full understanding of the biology of the organism. Full understanding cannot be achieved, however, in the absence of fundamental knowledge of natural history. We report that species of Neurospora, heretofore thought to occur mainly in moist tropical and subtropical regions, are common primary colonizers of trees and shrubs killed by forest fires in western North America, in regions that are often cold and dry. Surveys in 36 forest-fire sites from New Mexico to Alaska yielded more than 500 cultures, 95% of which were the rarely collected N. discreta. Initial characterization of genotypes both within a site and on a single tree showed diversity consistent with sexual reproduction of N. discreta. These discoveries fill important gaps in knowledge of the distribution of members of the genus on both large and small spatial scales and provide the framework for future studies in new regions and microhabitats. The overall result is that population biology and genetics now can be combined, placing the genus Neurospora in a unique position to expand its role in experimental biology as a useful model organism for ecology, population genetics and evolution.
真菌属 Neurospora 作为遗传学和生物化学的实验室模型具有悠久的历史。在这段历史中，最近的一个里程碑是最著名的物种 N. crassa 基因组的测序。完整基因组序列的希望和承诺是对生物体生物学的全面理解。然而，如果没有对自然历史的基本知识，就无法实现全面的理解。我们报告说，以前被认为主要存在于潮湿的热带和亚热带地区的 Neurospora 物种，是北美西部森林火灾中杀死的树木和灌木的常见主要定植者，这些地区通常寒冷干燥。在新墨西哥州到阿拉斯加的 36 个森林火灾现场进行的调查共获得了 500 多个培养物，其中 95%为很少采集的 N. discreta。对单个地点和单棵树上的基因型进行的初步特征分析表明，与 N. discreta 的有性繁殖一致的多样性。这些发现填补了在大、小空间尺度上属成员分布知识的重要空白，并为未来在新地区和微生境进行研究提供了框架。总的来说，种群生物学和遗传学现在可以结合起来，使 Neurospora 属能够在实验生物学中扩大其作为生态学、种群遗传学和进化有用模型生物的作用。
