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. 1997 Jul;146(3):859–869. doi: 10.1093/genetics/146.3.859

Mating Type in Chlamydomonas Is Specified by Mid, the minus-Dominance Gene

P J Ferris 1, U W Goodenough 1
PMCID: PMC1208056  PMID: 9215892

Abstract

Diploid cells of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii that are heterozygous at the mating-type locus (mt(+)/mt(-)) differentiate as minus gametes, a phenomenon known as minus dominance. We report the cloning and characterization of a gene that is necessary and sufficient to exert this minus dominance over the plus differentiation program. The gene, called mid, is located in the rearranged (R) domain of the mt(-) locus, and has duplicated and transposed to an autosome in a laboratory strain. The imp11 mt(-) mutant, which differentiates as a fusion-incompetent plus gamete, carries a point mutation in mid. Like the fus1 gene in the mt(+) locus, mid displays low codon bias compared with other nuclear genes. The mid sequence carries a putative leucine zipper motif, suggesting that it functions as a transcription factor to switch on the minus program and switch off the plus program of gametic differentiation. This is the first sex-determination gene to be characterized in a green organism.

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Selected References

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