Mating Type
A picture of the mating type mechanism has begun to emerge from studies of particular fungi such as yeast. The mating type genes are located in homeobox and encode enzymes for production of pheromones and pheromone receptors. Sexual reproduction thereby depends on pheromones produced from variant alleles of the same gene. Since sexual reproduction takes place in haploid organisms, it cannot proceed until complementary genes are provided by a suitable partner through cell or hyphal fusion. The number of mating types depends on the number of genes and the number of alleles for each.
Depending of the species, sexual reproduction takes place through gametes or hyphal fusion. When a receptor on one haploid detects a pheromone from a complementary mating type, it approaches the source through chemotropic growth or chemotactic movement if it is a gamete.
Read more about this topic: Mating In Fungi
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