Light-Dependence for Fruiting Body Formation and Its Inheritance in Phoma caricae-papayae

Abstract

Strains of P. caricae-papavae are light-dependent and light-independent for sporulation. Effective wavelengths for inducing fruiting body, pycnidium and perithecium, formation in a light-dependent strain were shorter than 360 nm. Hybridization between the 2 strains resulted in progeny which segregated 1:1 with respect to dependency on light for fruiting body formation, indicating a single nuclear gene control for light-dependent sporulation. Stable and uniform heterokaryons were readily established between the 2 strains without any selective pressure in spite of the different growth rates of the parental homokaryon strains.