Home • Phycomyces blakesleeanus UBC21 v2.0
Asexual spores produced by Phycomyces blakesleeanus strain UBC21. Scale bar = 10 um. Image provided by Alexander Idnurm.
Asexual spores produced by Phycomyces blakesleeanus strain UBC21. Scale bar = 10 um. Image provided by Alexander Idnurm.

The Mucorales species Phycomyces blakesleeanus has served as a model for understanding the evolution of mating systems in fungi.  Most crosses produce zygospores that have a long dormancy (over four months).  Strain UBC21 was identified as a strain that when crossed to the standard laboratory wild-type strain NRRL1555 yields zygospores with a short dormancy of about two months.  This crossing pair was used to generate a genetic map for the species using molecular markers (Chaudhry et al. 2013).  The mapping information and the genome sequence of UBC21 will aid in resolving the genomic scaffolds into a higher order assembly.

Reference:

Chaudhary S, Polaino S, Shakya VPS, Idnurm A. 2013. A new genetic linkage map of the zygomycete Phycomyces blakesleeanus. PLoS One 8: e58931.