Neurospora crassa

''Neurospora crassa'' is a type of red bread mold of the phylum Ascomycota. The genus name, meaning "nerve spore" in Greek, refers to the characteristic striations on the spores. The first published account of this fungus was from an infestation of French bakeries in 1843.

''Neurospora crassa'' is used as a model organism because it is easy to grow and has a haploid life cycle that makes genetic analysis simple since recessive traits will show up in the offspring. Analysis of genetic recombination is facilitated by the ordered arrangement of the products of meiosis in ''Neurospora'' ascospores. Its entire genome of seven chromosomes has been sequenced.

''Neurospora'' was used by Edward Tatum and George Wells Beadle in their experiments for which they won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1958. Beadle and Tatum exposed ''N. crassa'' to x-rays, causing mutations. They then observed failures in metabolic pathways caused by errors in specific enzymes. This led them to propose the "one gene, one enzyme" hypothesis that specific genes code for specific proteins. Their hypothesis was later elaborated to enzyme pathways by Norman Horowitz, also working on ''Neurospora''. As Norman Horowitz reminisced in 2004, "These experiments founded the science of what Beadle and Tatum called 'biochemical genetics'. In actuality, they proved to be the opening gun in what became molecular genetics and all developments that have followed from that."

In the 24 April 2003 issue of ''Nature'', the genome of ''N. crassa'' was reported as completely sequenced. The genome is about 43 megabases long and includes approximately 10,000 genes. There is a project underway to produce strains containing knockout mutants of every ''N. crassa'' gene.

In its natural environment, ''N. crassa'' lives mainly in tropical and sub-tropical regions. It can be found growing on dead plant matter after fires.

Neurospora is actively used in research around the world. It is important in the elucidation of molecular events involved in circadian rhythms, epigenetics and gene silencing, cell polarity, cell fusion, development, as well as many aspects of cell biology and biochemistry.

The sexual cycle

Sexual fruiting bodies (perithecia) can only be formed when two mycelia of different mating type come together (see Figure). Like other Ascomycetes, ''N. crassa'' has two mating types that, in this case, are symbolized by ''A'' and ''a''. There is no evident morphological difference between the ''A'' and ''a'' mating type strains. Both can form abundant protoperithecia, the female reproductive structure (see Figure). Protoperithecia are formed most readily in the laboratory when growth occurs on solid (agar) synthetic medium with a relatively low source of nitrogen. Nitrogen starvation appears to be necessary for expression of genes involved in sexual development. The protoperithecium consists of an ascogonium, a coiled multicellular hypha that is enclosed in a knot-like aggregation of hyphae. A branched system of slender hyphae, called the trichogyne, extends from the tip of the ascogonium projecting beyond the sheathing hyphae into the air. The sexual cycle is initiated (i.e. fertilization occurs) when a cell (usually a conidium) of opposite mating type contacts a part of the trichogyne (see Figure). Such contact can be followed by cell fusion leading to one or more nuclei from the fertilizing cell migrating down the trichogyne into the ascogonium. Since both ''A'' and ''a'' strains have the same sexual structures, neither strain can be regarded as exclusively male or female. However, as a recipient, the protoperithecium of both the ''A'' and ''a'' strains can be thought of as the female structure, and the fertilizing conidium can be thought of as the male participant.

The subsequent steps following fusion of ''A'' and ''a'' haploid cells, have been outlined by Fincham and Day and Wagner and Mitchell. After fusion of the cells, the further fusion of their nuclei is delayed. Instead, a nucleus from the fertilizing cell and a nucleus from the ascogonium become associated and begin to divide synchronously. The products of these nuclear divisions (still in pairs of unlike mating type, i.e. ''A/a'') migrate into numerous ascogenous hyphae, which then begin to grow out of the ascogonium. Each of these ascogenous hypha bends to form a hook (or crozier) at its tip and the ''A'' and ''a'' pair of haploid nuclei within the crozier divide synchronously. Next, septa form to divide the crozier into three cells. The central cell in the curve of the hook contains one ''A'' and one ''a'' nucleus (see Figure). This binuclear cell initiates ascus formation and is called an "ascus-initial" cell. Next the two uninucleate