Bialaphos resistance as a dominant selectable marker in Neurospora crassa.

Conidia of Neurospora crassa are sensitive to the herbicide bialaphos at concentrations of 160 mg/l in Westergaard's or Fries' minimal media. Plasmid pJA4 was constructed by inserting a truncated bar gene from Streptomyces hygroscopicus fused to the his-3 promoter from N. crassa into pUC19. The bar gene in plasmid pJA4 confers resistance to bialaphos when transformants are selected on a medium containing bialaphos. The bar gene can be used as an additional dominant selectable marker for transformation of fungi.