Genetics, Vol 146, 541-551, Copyright © 1997

INVESTIGATIONS

Multiple Genes Encoding Pheromones and a Pheromone Receptor Define the B{beta}1 Mating-Type Specificity in Schizophyllum commune

L. J. Vaillancourt, M. Raudaskoski, C. A. Specht and C. A. Raper
Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, the L. P. Markey Center for Molecular Genetics, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont 05405 Present address: Department of Plant Pathology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506.

The genes defining multiple B mating types in the wood-rotting mushroom Schizophyllum commune are predicted to encode multiple pheromones and pheromone receptors. These genes are clustered in each of two recombinable and independently functioning loci, B{alpha} and B{beta}. A difference in specificity at either locus between a mated pair of individuals initiates an identical series of events in sexual morphogenesis. The B{alpha}1 locus was recently found to contain genes predicted to encode three lipopeptide pheromones and a pheromone receptor with a seven-transmembrane domain. These gene products interact in hetero-specific pairs, the pheromone of one B{alpha} specificity with the receptor of any one of the other eight B{alpha} specificities, and are likely to activate a signaling cascade similar to that known for mating in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We report here that the B{beta}1 locus also contains at least three pheromone genes and one pheromone receptor gene, which function similarly to the genes in the B{alpha}1 locus, but only within the series of B{beta} specificities. A comparison of the DNA sequences of the B{alpha}1 and B{beta}1 loci suggest that each arose from a common ancestral sequence, allowing us to speculate about the evolution of this unique series of regulatory genes.

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