Genetic and Physical Variability at the Mating Type Locus of the Oomycete, Phytophthora infestans

Mating type in the oomyceteous fungus, Phytophthora infestans, is determined by a single locus. In a previous study of a few isolates, the locus segregated in a manner genetically consistent with its linkage to a system of balanced lethal loci. To determine the prevalence of this phenomenon within P. infestans, genetic analyses were performed using isolates representative of the diversity within the species that had been selected by DNA fingerprinting using probes linked to mating type. Non-Mendelian segregation of the mating type locus was observed in crosses performed with each isolate. An unusual group of isolates was identified in which the mating type determinants had been rearranged within the genome; these strains also produced an aberrantly large number of self-fertile progeny. Curiously, in all isolates, markers linked to the mating type locus appeared prone to duplication, transposition, deletion, or other rearrangement. This was not observed for loci unlinked to mating type. Data from the crosses and analyses of marker variation were used to erect models to explain the bases of mating type determination and of the unusual segregation of the chromosomal region containing the mating type locus.