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Eukaryotic Cell, October 2002, p. 704-718, Vol. 1, No. 5
1535-9778/02/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/EC.1.5.704-718.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Mating-Type Locus of Cryptococcus neoformans: a Step in the Evolution of Sex Chromosomes

Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27710

Received 27 June 2002/ Accepted 11 July 2002

The sexual development and virulence of the fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans is controlled by a bipolar mating system determined by a single locus that exists in two alleles, and a. The and a mating-type alleles from two divergent varieties were cloned and sequenced. The C. neoformans mating-type locus is unique, spans >100 kb, and contains more than 20 genes. MAT-encoded products include homologs of regulators of sexual development in other fungi, pheromone and pheromone receptors, divergent components of a MAP kinase cascade, and other proteins with no obvious function in mating. The and a alleles of the mating-type locus have extensively rearranged during evolution and strain divergence but are stable during genetic crosses and in the population. The C. neoformans mating-type locus is strikingly different from the other known fungal mating-type loci, sharing features with the self-incompatibility systems and sex chromosomes of algae, plants, and animals. Our study establishes a new paradigm for mating-type loci in fungi with implications for the evolution of cell identity and self/nonself recognition.

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