{"id":245,"date":"2015-05-22T15:25:14","date_gmt":"2015-05-22T19:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/ebraun\/?page_id=245"},"modified":"2026-03-19T08:29:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T12:29:19","slug":"amb04","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/ebraun\/publications\/amb04\/","title":{"rendered":"Genomics in Neurospora crassa: From One-Gene-One-Enzyme to 10,000 Genes"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
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Genomics in Neurospora crassa: From One-Gene-One-Enzyme to 10,000 Genes<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Applied Mycology and Biotechnology<\/em>, Vol. 4, in press. Edited by DK Arora & GG Khachatourians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Genomics in\u00a0Neurospora crassa<\/i>: From One-Gene-One-Enzyme to 10,000 Genes<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Edward L. Braun,<\/wbr>\u00a0Donald O. Natvig,<\/wbr>\u00a0Margaret Werner-Washburne<\/wbr>\u00a0and<\/wbr>\u00a0Mary Anne Nelson*<\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Department of Zoology, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611 (E.L.B.)\u00a0 and Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131 (D.O.N., M.W.-W., M.A.N.);<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Neurospora crassa<\/i>\u00a0<\/sup>was the central\u00a0<\/sup>organism in the development\u00a0<\/sup>of biochemical genetics,\u00a0<\/sup>providing a model system\u00a0<\/sup>that established\u00a0<\/sup>the relationship\u00a0<\/sup>between genes and enzymes;\u00a0<\/sup>it remains the best-studied\u00a0<\/sup>filamentous fungus.\u00a0<\/sup>This review focuses\u00a0<\/sup>on the impact that\u00a0<\/sup>the recent publication\u00a0<\/sup>of a high-quality\u00a0<\/sup>draft sequence of the\u00a0<\/sup>N. crassa<\/i>\u00a0genome\u00a0<\/sup>will have upon\u00a0<\/sup>efforts to understand\u00a0<\/sup>the biology of the\u00a0<\/sup>filamentous fungi.\u00a0<\/sup>Although several fungal\u00a0<\/sup>genomes have been\u00a0<\/sup>sequenced, annotated, and published,\u00a0<\/sup>the organisms that have\u00a0<\/sup>been examined\u00a0<\/sup>are yeasts withrelatively small genomes.\u00a0<\/sup>In sharp contrast,\u00a0<\/sup>N. crassa<\/i>\u00a0contains\u00a0<\/sup>about 10,000 protein-coding\u00a0<\/sup>genes, approximately\u00a0<\/sup>twice as many genes\u00a0<\/sup>as the yeasts and only\u00a0<\/sup>slightly fewer than the\u00a0<\/sup>invertebrate animals.\u00a0<\/sup>Analysis of this gene\u00a0<\/sup>set suggests that\u00a0<\/sup>several different\u00a0<\/sup>processes have led\u00a0<\/sup>to the differences in gene\u00a0<\/sup>content between\u00a0<\/sup>N. crassa<\/i>\u00a0and the yeasts.\u00a0<\/sup>Evidence for the loss\u00a0<\/sup>of genes in the yeasts\u00a0<\/sup>and the acquisition of\u00a0<\/sup>novel genes in\u00a0<\/sup>Neurospora<\/i>\u00a0lineage is\u00a0<\/sup>described, as well\u00a0<\/sup>as details regarding\u00a0<\/sup>the biological processes\u00a0<\/sup>that have led to\u00a0<\/sup>these changes.\u00a0<\/sup>Analyses of the\u00a0<\/sup>N. crassa<\/i>genome sequence\u00a0<\/sup>revealed the widest\u00a0<\/sup>array of genome\u00a0<\/sup>defense mechanisms known for\u00a0<\/sup>any organism, and\u00a0<\/sup>one of these defense\u00a0<\/sup>mechanisms (RIP) appears\u00a0<\/sup>to have blocked\u00a0<\/sup>the productive\u00a0<\/sup>duplication of genes.\u00a0<\/sup>Since gene duplication\u00a0<\/sup>is the most\u00a0<\/sup>common pathway for the\u00a0<\/sup>origin of novel genes,\u00a0<\/sup>it seems likely that\u00a0<\/sup>N. crassa<\/i>\u00a0will provide\u00a0<\/sup>an excellent model\u00a0<\/sup>system for understanding\u00a0<\/sup>alternative ways in\u00a0<\/sup>which novel\u00a0<\/sup>genes arise.\u00a0<\/sup>A number of unexpected\u00a0<\/sup>genes were identified\u00a0<\/sup>when the complete\u00a0<\/sup>genome sequence was\u00a0<\/sup>analyzed, indicating\u00a0<\/sup>that\u00a0N. crassa<\/i>\u00a0produces\u00a0<\/sup>secondary metabolites,\u00a0<\/sup>shares apparent\u00a0<\/sup>“pathogenicity” genes\u00a0<\/sup>with plant pathogens,\u00a0<\/sup>and responds to\u00a0<\/sup>environmental\u00a0<\/sup>cues such as light\u00a0<\/sup>in novel ways.\u00a0<\/sup>The genome sequence for\u00a0<\/sup>N. crassa<\/i>\u00a0is the first\u00a0<\/sup>exciting step toward a\u00a0<\/sup>detailed understanding\u00a0<\/sup>of the biology of\u00a0<\/sup>filamentous fungi,\u00a0<\/sup>and it will\u00a0<\/sup>allow fungal biologists\u00a0<\/sup>to establish which\u00a0<\/sup>features of the filamentous\u00a0<\/sup>fungi are shared with\u00a0<\/sup>non-fungal\u00a0<\/sup>organisms and which\u00a0<\/sup>features are\u00a0<\/sup>unique.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation (grant no. MCB-9874488 to M.A.N.).<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

*<\/sup>\u00a0Corresponding author<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n<\/section>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":544,"featured_media":0,"parent":19,"menu_order":17,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"featured_post":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-245","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/ebraun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/ebraun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/ebraun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/ebraun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/544"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/ebraun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/ebraun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":464,"href":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/ebraun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/245\/revisions\/464"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/ebraun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/ebraun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}