Complementation of a stable Met2-1 mutant of the zygomycete Absidia glauca by the corresponding wild-type allele of the mycoparasite Parasitella parasitica, transferred during infection.

Compared with prokaryotes, where horizontal gene transfer events are frequently found and can be studied in the laboratory at the mechanistic level, few systems are known that allow direct experimental access to parasexual phenomena in eukaryotes. In zygomycetes, a basal lineage of fungi, several mycoparasitic fungi are known that inevitably form a cytoplasmic continuum with their hosts during infection. We provide evidence that, corresponding to the expectation suggested by the morphology of the infection process, gene transfer occurs from the parasite to the host.

Transformation of the fungus Absidia glauca by complementation of a methionine-auxotrophic strain affected in the homoserine-acetyltransferase gene.

Transformation of fungi by complementation of auxotrophs is generally much more reliable than usage of antibiotic resistance markers. In order to establish such a system for the model zygomycete Absidia glauca, a stable methionine auxotrophic mutant was isolated after X-ray mutagenesis of the minus mating type and characterized at the molecular level. The mutant is disrupted in the coding region of the Met2-1 gene, encoding homoserine O-acetyltransferase.