Recurrent locus-specific mutation resulting from a cryptic ectopic insertion in Neurospora. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • New mutations are found among approximately 20% of progeny when one or both parents carry eas allele UCLA191 (eas(UCLA), easily wettable, hydrophobin-deficient, linkage group II). The mutations inactivate the wild-type allele of cya-8 (cytochrome aa3 deficient, linkage group VII), resulting in thin, "transparent" mycelial growth. Other eas alleles fail to produce cya-8 mutant progeny. The recurrent cya-8 mutations are attributed to repeat-induced point mutation (RIP) resulting from a duplicated copy of cya-8+ that was inserted ectopically at eas when the UCLA191 mutation occurred. As expected for RIP, eas(UCLA)-induced cya-8 mutations occur during nuclear proliferation prior to karyogamy. When only one parent is eas(UCLA), the new mutations arise exclusively in eas(UCLA) nuclei. Mutation of cya-8 is suppressed when a long unlinked duplication is present. Stable cya-8 mutations are effectively eliminated in crosses homozygous for rid, a recessive suppressor of RIP. The eas(UCLA) allele is associated with a long paracentric inversion. A discontinuity is present in eas(UCLA) DNA. The eas promoter is methylated in cya-8 progeny of eas(UCLA), presumably by the spreading of methylation beyond the adjoining RIP-inactivated duplication. These findings support a model in which an ectopic insertion that created a mutation at the target site acts as a locus-specific mutator via RIP.

published proceedings

  • Genetics

altmetric score

  • 5.08

author list (cited authors)

  • Perkins, D. D., Freitag, M., Pollard, V. C., Bailey-Shrode, L. A., Selker, E. U., & Ebbole, D. J.

citation count

  • 11

complete list of authors

  • Perkins, David D||Freitag, Michael||Pollard, Virginia C||Bailey-Shrode, Lori A||Selker, Eric U||Ebbole, Daniel J

publication date

  • February 2007