NR AKWE
AU Silar,P.; Daboussi,M.J.
TI Non-conventional infectious elements in filamentous fungi
QU Trends in Genetics 1999 Apr; 15(4): 141-5
PT journal article; review; review, tutorial
AB Old data (most often in French) described phenomena involving non-conventional infectious factors in filamentous fungi. Recently, it was shown that two yeast cytoplasmic determinants are similar to known mammalian prions, in that their different states are attributed to conformational changes of normal cellular proteins. In the light of this discovery, fungal elements are now being reconsidered. This review presents four elements that affect vegetative incompatibility, conidiogenesis, morphology and cell growth. Recently, one element has been shown to be a prion analogue. The status of the others is not clear. We consider the view that non-conventional inheritance might be initiated by the appearance, in the cytoplasm, of a metabolite or a macromolecule whose production involves a positive regulatory loop.
ZR 33
MH Cytoplasm/genetics; Fungal Proteins/genetics; Fungi/*genetics/growth & development/metabolism; Phenotype; Prions/genetics; Variation (Genetics)
AD Institut de Genetique et Microbiologie, URA CNRS 2225, Universite de Paris Sud, Bat. 400, 1 rue George Clemenceau, 91405 Orsay Cedex, France.silar@igmors.u-psud.fr
SP englisch
PO England