Is cell fusion driven by excitation? (Comment on DOI: 10.1002/bies.201100135)

摘要

In many species of ?lamentous fungi,individual hyphae fuse to form complexinterconnected networks (mycelia). Theformation of a mycelium is central toan adaptive growth strategy, allowingbetter utilisation of substrates androbust exploitation of physically complexenvironments. Fusion processes (anastomosis) start to occur almost immediatelyafter spore germination and continue asthe network matures. As detailed inref. 1, what differentiates fusion in earlycolony growth of the model speciesNeurospora crassa is that it is dominatedby tip-to-tip events involving specialstructures called conidial anastomosistubes (CATs). These appear to auto-locateusing chemotactic signalling.