Temperature-dependent internuclear transfer of genetic material in heterokaryons ofCandida albicans

✍ Scribed by Alvin Sarachek; David A. Weber

• Publisher: Springer-Verlag
• Year: 1984
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 710 KB
• Volume: 8
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0172-8083
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00417814

✦ Synopsis

Heterokaryons (hets)

of Candida albicans are produced by fusing protoplasts of complementing auxotrophic strains and can be propagated continuously on minimal medium despite their tendency to assort nuclei into monokaryotic blastospores. Most monokaryons have parental-type nuclei, but some are nuclear hybrids with DNA contents between one and two times that of their parental strains. Evidence is presented that hybrids arise by transfer of a portion of the genetic material of one het nucleus to another, and that the amount of material conveyed during transfer increases with increasing het growth temperatures over the range 25 °C to 41 °C. This partial hybridization is a general property of hets and is not determined by the wildtype strain backgrounds of their parental components or by the kinds of auxotrophies forcing heterokaryosis. Frequencies of mitotic recombinants induced in partial hybrids by ultraviolet radiation indicate that nuclei of C. albicans are naturally diploid.