Neurospora Chronology 1843-2002

Our recent review included a timeline showing 30 significant events in the history of Neurospora (Davis and Perkins 2002, Nature Reviews Genetics 3:397-403). Many important contributions could not be included in that brief chronology because of space limitations. We present here a somewhat more complete and better documented list of noteworthy developments. Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 License. This special paper is available in Fungal Genetics Reports: http://newprairiepress.org/fgr/vol49/iss1/2 4 Fungal Genetics Newsletter NEUROSPORA CH RONOLOGY 1843-2002 David D. Perkins and Rowland H.Davis Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-5020; Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, University of California, Irvine, California 92697-3900 Our recent review included a timeline showing 30 significant events in the history of Neurospora (Davis and Perkins 2002, Nature Reviews Genetics 3:397-403). Many important contributions could not be included in that brief chronology because of space limitations. We present here a somewhat more complete and better documented list of noteworthy developments. Publications are cited here only by author and date. Complete references will be found in the books and reviews given at the end of the list. 1843. The first published account of Neurospora (commissioned by the Minister of War) describes material from contaminated bakeries in Paris. Orange pigment is shown to be induced by light. (Payen 1843) 1901. F.A.F.C. Went reports the use of Neurospora (called Monilia sitophila ) as a component of edible ontjam cakes in Java. He uses the orange fungus to examine the effect of substrates on various enzymes. (Went 1901) 1909. Neurospora is used in a study of oxidases. (Pringsheim 1909} 1913. Neurospora is used in studies of chemical toxicity. (Kunkel 1913, 1914) 1923. Luxuriant growth of Neurospora is seen following the 1923 earthquake and great fire in Tokyo. Perithecia with eight-spored asci are found in the bark of burned trees and are produced on artificial medium. (Kitasima 1924, Kitazima 1925) 1924. The orange pigment is identified as a carotenoid. (Tokugawa and Emoto 1924) 1927. The genus is named, species are described, and B. O. Dodge initiates genetic and cytological studies. Shot asci are used to show 4:4 segregation of mating type genes. Ascospores are shown to be activated by heat. (Shear and Dodge 1927) 1927. A cytological study reveals how ascus development in N. tetrasperma is programmed to enclose nuclei of opposite-mating-type in each of the four heterokaryotic ascospores. (Dodge 1927) 1928. T. H. M organ takes N eurospora cultures with him when moving from Columbia University to establish the Biology Division at the California Institute of Technology. (See Lindegren 1973) 1928. Carl Lindegren selects N. crassa as the preferred species for genetics and proceeds to develop stocks and obtain markers. (Lindegren 1931, 1933; See Lindegren 1973) 1935. N. intermedia is described as a new species. (Tai 1935) 1935. Ascospore activation is examined physiologically. (Goddard 1935, 1939) 1936. The first genetic map is published, consisting of six loci. (Lindegren 1936) 1939. Neurospora is used as a textbook example showing first and second division segregation in the linear ascus, with crossing over at the four-chromatid stage. (Sturtevant and Beadle 1939; Sinnott and Dunn 1939, Waddington 1939) 1941. Beadle and Tatum use Neurospora to obtain the first biochemical mutants. (Beadle and Tatum 1941) 1943. ‘Race tubes’ are used to measure linear growth rate on agar media and to determine optimal conditions for growth. (Ryan et al. 1943) 1943, 1946. Conditional biochemical mutants are identified. (Stokes et al. 1943, Mitchell and Houlahan 1946) 1944. Mutants are identified that affect different steps in the same biosynthetic pathway. (Srb and Horowitz 1944) 1944. Heterokaryons are studied systematically using mutant markers. (Beadle and Coonradt 1944) 1944-45. Strains of opposite mating type are shown to be heterokaryon-incompatible. (Beadle and Coonradt 1944, Sansome 1945) 1945. Barbara McClintock identifies the seven chromosomes, describes meiosis and postmeiotic mitoses, and identifies a translocation. (McClintock 1945) 1947. The first suppressor of a biochemical mutation is discovered. (Houlahan and Mitchell 1947) 1947. A synthetic medium is devised for making crosses. (Westergaard and Mitchell 1947) 1948. Ascospores are shown to be activated by furfural . (M. B. Emerson 1948) 1948. Enzyme activity is shown to be absent in cell-free extracts of a trp-3 mutant. (Mitchell and Lein 1948) 1948. Sorbose is used to obtain colonial growth. (Tatum et al. 1948) 1948, 53. Chromosome cytology and behavior in the ascus are described and documented in detail. (Singleton 1948, 1953) 1948, 53, 67. Genetic linkage groups are assigned to cytologically defined chromosomes. (Singleton 1948, St. Lawrence 1953, Barry 1967) 1949. Linkage data are presented that establish six linkage groups. (Houlahan et al. 1949) 1949-54. Accumulated evidence makes it increasingly clear that genes specifying different steps in the same biosynthetic pathway are not clustered. (Houlahan et al. 1949, Barratt et al. 1954) 1950. Temperature sensitive mutants are cited in support of the one gene-one enzyme hypothesis. (Horowitz and Leupold 1951) 1950. A simplified method for preserving cultures by lyophilization is described. (Barratt and Tatum 1950) 1951. Neurospora is found growing in large patches in areas devastated by a volcanic eruption in New Guinea. (Burges and Chalmers 1952) Published by New Prairie Press, 2017