Abstract
Colonies of filamentous fungi comprise of a network of syncytic, multinucleate hyphae. Establishment and growth of the mycelial colony commonly involve fusion of specialized hyphal structures, a process termed anastomosis formation. This unusual biological phenomenon has long attracted the attention of basic and applied researchers. It provides basic experimental research with an easily amenable model for various cell biological questions, including cell-cell communication, directed growth, or plasma membrane merger. In addition, anastomosis formation and subsequent heterokaryon formation have long been used as research tools for genetically manipulating fungi. Examples include genetic mapping in asexual fungi or the use of heterokaryotic mycelia in biotechnological applications. Recent years have seen a great revival of interest in the process of hyphal fusion, cummulating in the conclusion that we are currently still far from fully understanding the biology or appreciating the rich applicable potential of this fascinating process.
Keywords
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Acknowledgments
Work in our group is supported by funding from the German Research Foundation (FL 706/1-2) and the European Union [PITN-GA-2013-607963].
We thank David Havlik, Stephanie Herzog, and Marcel Schumann for critical reading of the manuscript.
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Weichert, M., Fleißner, A. (2015). Anastomosis and Heterokaryon Formation. In: van den Berg, M., Maruthachalam, K. (eds) Genetic Transformation Systems in Fungi, Volume 2. Fungal Biology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10503-1_1
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