Revisiting a Special Structural Order of a Growing Tip of the Neurospora crassa Hypha

Data are presented on the spatial arrangement of the intracellular structures in the apical end of the vegetative hyphae of the filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa and the involvement of these structures in the tip growth of the hyphae. On the basis of the comparison of the behavior of mitochondria and microtubules and the data on the electrical heterogeneity of the hyphal apex, a hypothesis is proposed about a possible supervisory role of the longitudinal electric field in the structural and functional organization of the growing tips of the N. crassa hyphae. New data are presented on the tip growth of Neurospora crassa in the conditions of the resource deficiency. Namely, impairments in the coherence of elongation, branching and septation were studied in isolated 400 μm long apical fragments of N. Nrassa hyphae growing for several hours without the influx of the nutrient materials from the mycelium. This experimental model can be used for the investigations of the molecular and genetic mechanisms regulating the interactions between intracellular structures involved in the tip growth of Neurospora Nrassa.