Special Issue: Endocytobiosis and Cell Research of Fungi

摘要

The concept of antibiosis was detected in the genus Penicillium in the late 19th century by Ernest Duchesne and was later developed to an instrumental application by Alexander Fleming and his colleagues. Much later, the genes for penicillin synthesis were recognised as acquisitions from bacteria by horizontal gene transfer. The one-gene-one-enzyme conception, shortly after one of the principles of modern genetics, was developed on the basis of heterokarya, formed by anastomoses between auxotrophic mutants of Neurospora crassa by George Beadle and Edward Tatum. It was a phylogenetically old fungus, the zygomycete Phycomyces blakesleeanus, where Max Delbrück and friends characterised the most sensitive bluelight sensing system in biology. Even cytogenetic analysis, a big problem in the fungal realm with the typically annoyingly tiny chromosomes, has had an impressive highlight with Barbara McClintock’s microscopic studies on Neurospora crassa chromosomes. Today, with recent development in laser-scanning microscopy and single-molecule imaging by fluorescence labelling, this is no longer a problem. Consequently, the fungal community has provided us with a wealth of information on the cytoskeleton and especially on the mechanisms of the spindle apparatus. Functional studies on the cell cycle are predominantly based on Schizosaccharomyces pombe as a laboratory model, led to a Nobel award for Paul Nurse. Later, understanding of chromosome function and the possibility for constructing artificial chromosomes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae were also appreciated with the big award to Jack Szostak. All these biological achievements of fundamental importance at the border between cell biology and genetics, including Robin Holliday’s definition of crossover structures, based on genetic work in the corn smut mould Ustilago maydis, have shaped our general picture of biology.