AN INTERSTITIAL PERICENTRIC INVERSION IN NEUROSPORA

Abstract

In ln(IL; IR)OY323 of Neurospora crassa, a long central segment of linkage group I is inverted that includes the centromere. This is the first interstitial pericentric inversion to be identified in a fungus. In genetic and cytological behavior, it resembles chromosome inversions in higher eukaryotes. In crosses heterozygous for the OY323 inversion, normally distant markers are closely linked, while in homozygous inversion crosses the gene order is reversed, but recombination is approximately normal within the inverted segment. A characteristic inversion loop may form at pachytene in heterozygous crosses; frequently, segments distal to the breakpoints do not pair, however. Rearrangement breakpoints were mapped precisely by duplication coverage using appropriate recessive markers in crosses of OY323 with a partially overlapping inversion, In(IL→IR)NM176.