Cytophotometric Evidence for Heteroploidy in the Life Cycle of Armillaria mellea

Evidence for Significant Differences in Nuclear Dna Content Between Two Geographically Isolated Clones of Armillaria Mellea

“…Given the features of a diploid vegetative condition, an apparently environmentally influenced haploidization process, and the mosaic character of the carpophores with respect to DNA levels, it was hypothesized that aneuploid or polyploid clones ofthis organism might exist (Peabody et al, 1978). This paper reports the first evidence for significant differences in nuclear DNA content between two geographically isolated clones of A. mellea.…”

“…The author wishes to express his thanks to Dr. Joe Ammirati of the University of Washington for collection E-I and others used in this study, and to Dr. John Doerr, Department ofAnimal Sciences at the University of Maryland, for the chicken erythrocytes. number of nuclei with DNA values that are suggestive of aneuploidy or polyploidy occur in all tissues (Peabody et al, 1978).…”

“…In nature the fungus propagates most effectively by highly specialized rhizomorphs (Motta, 1969) and establishes large, long-lived clones (Adams, 1974;Korhonen, 1978). Recent cytological and genetic studies have shown that A. mellea is vegetatively diploid with a tetrapolar sexual pattern (Hintikka, 1973;Peabody, Motta and Therrien, 1978;Ullrich and Anderson, 1978). In some isolates haploidization of diploid nuclei occurs in the subhymenium to produce binucleate hyphae with clamp connections (Tommerup and Broadbent, 1975).…”

“…In some isolates haploidization of diploid nuclei occurs in the subhymenium to produce binucleate hyphae with clamp connections (Tommerup and Broadbent, 1975). In many isolates no haploidization of nuclei of the subhymenium occurs (Kniep, 1911;Peabody et aI., 1978;Peabody and Motta, 1979;Korhonen, 1980), and, in at least one case, it has been shown that binucleate subhymenial hyphae are produced in nature but not in carpophores that have been developed in culture (Korhonen, 1980). In situ DNA measurements have confirmed that uninucleate hyphae are diploid and the paired nuclei of subhymenial hyphae are haploid (Peabody et al, 1978).…”

“…With proper controls, the two-wavelength method of Patau has been shown to be a reliable method for the quantitation of nuclear DNA (Rasch and Rasch, 1970;Van Oostveldt and Boeken, 1976;Dhillon, Berlyn and Mitsche, 1977). However, with small quantities of DNA, some question has been raised regarding the accuracy of the data (Coleman, Maguire and Coleman, 1981;Peabody and Peabody, 1984). It is important, therefore, to interpret results obtained from fungi using this technique very carefully.…”