A MATERNALLY EXPRESSED NUCLEAR GENE CONTROLLING PERITHECIAL PIGMENTATION IN GIBBERELLA-FUJIKUROI (FUSARIUM-MONILIFORME)

Three field isolates of Gibberella fujikuroi (Fusarium moniliforme) that produce abnormally pigmented perithecia when they serve as the female (protoperithecial) parent were identified during an ecological survey. These strains produced perithecia with pale yellow-to-brown pigmentation instead of the blue-black perithecia found in most wild-type strains. Perithecial walls are of maternal origin and perithecial pigmentation depends on the genotype of the protoperithecial parent, not the fertilizing (male) parent. All three mutant alleles segregate as Mendelian alleles of a single chromosomal locus, pal1, which is unlinked to mating type. One strain failed to form a heterokaryon with the other two, indicating that the three isolates were not all clones of a single strain. © 1990 The American Genetic Association.