Occurrence of a major protein associated with fruiting body development in Neurospora and related Ascomycetes.

Electrophoretic and immunological analysis of fruiting body (perithecial) extracts demonstrates the occurrence of a major phase-specific perithecial protein in all Neurospora species and in the closely related Gelasinospora cerealis and Sordariafimicola. The perithecial proteins from these different species fall into a number of groups with different electrophoretic mobilities. They appear to be immunologically closely related but not identical to one another even within the same genus, with only partial identity exhibited between the heterothallic and pseudohomothallic Neurospora on the one hand and the homothallic Neurospora on the other hand. In immunological analysis of fruiting body extracts of the other Ascomycetes, Podospora anserina, Cochliobolus maydis, and Aspergillus nidulans, and of ascus extracts of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, no crossreaction with the Neurospora perithecial protein was found.