Circadian rhythm in the pink-orange bread mould Neurospora crassa: for what?

摘要

To paraphrase Theodosius Dobzhansky: Nothing in biology makes sense unless it is in the light of reproduction (Dobzhansky 1973). Does the once in ～24 hours (circadian) production of macroconidia in Neurospora crassa growing on an agar medium in a race tube (figure 1) or in a Petri dish as studied in the mutants invertase (Sargeant et al 1966) or band (Ramsdale 2001; Tan et al 2004; Price-Lloyd et al 2005) contribute to its reproductive success in nature? The characteristic pigmented macroconidia were first recognized in 1843 on mouldy bread in bakeries of Paris (Perkins 1992). Hence this fungus is popularly known as the pink or red bread-mould (Perkins 2005).