Genetic factors influencing lignin peroxidase activity in Phanerochaete chrysosporium ME446

Haploid recombinant progeny of Phanerochaete chrysosporium ME446, genome compositions of which had been defined by RFLP‐mapping, vary in their idiophasic behaviour. This allowed us to formulate a model of the sequence of idiophasic activities. One component of this variation, the amount of lignin peroxidase activity, is independent of the allele distributions of the lignin peroxidase gene clusters, but correlates with the allele distribution of another locus. This locus appears to control the spread of the lignin peroxidase‐active state within the idiophasic mycelial mat and may be the mating‐type locus. The successful determination of linkage relied on analysis of chromosome intervals rather than linkage to single markers; this approach should be generally useful for analysing quantitative characters by RFLP mapping.