Parasexuality in Fungi
Several members of Deuteromycetes, a few Ascomycetes & Basidiomycetes perform plasmogamy,karyogamy & meiosis (haplodisation) in their life cycle but not at a specific time and specified points . This abnormal behaviour of such fungi is termed as parasexuality . Pontecarvo & Roper , 1952 first discovered parasexuality in Aspergillus nidulans and also coined this term (Greek , para=beside of sex ).A few fungi which perform parasexuality are : Aspergillus nidulans, A.niger, A fumigatus ,A. oryzae, Penicillium chrysogenum , P.expansum, P.italicum,Fusarium oxysporum,Ustilago maydis,etc. Mechanism: Pontecarvo,1956 observed the following steps of parasexuality in Aspergillus nidulans: (i) Formation of heterokaryotic mycelium : Anastomosis of somatic hyphae of different genetic constitution , fusion of some nuclei and their subsequent division and mutation of one or more nuclei of a homokaryotic mycelia in some Ascomycetes resulted into heterokar...