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The Chlamydomonas Zygospore: Mutant Strains of Chlamydomonas monoica Blocked in Zygospore Morphogenesis Comprise 46 Complementation Groups
Karen VanWinkle-Swifta, Kristin Barona, Alexander McNamaraa, Peter Minkeb, Cynthia Burrascanoc, and Janine Maddock1,ca Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona 86011
b Department of Biology, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843
c Department of Biology, San Diego State University, San Diego, California 92182
Corresponding author: Karen VanWinkle-Swift, Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86011-5640, swift{at}nauvax.ucc.nau.edu (E-mail).
Communicating editor: S. L. ALLEN
| ABSTRACT |
|---|
Chlamydomonas monoica undergoes homothallic sexual reproduction in response to nitrogen starvation. Mating pairs are established in clonal culture via flagellar agglutination and fuse by way of activated mating structures to form the quadriflagellate zygote. The zygote further matures into a dormant diploid zygospore through a series of events that we collectively refer to as zygosporulation. Mutants that arrest development prior to the completion of zygosporulation have been obtained through the use of a variety of mutagens, including ultraviolet irradiation, 5-fluorodeoxyuridine, ethyl methanesulfonate, and methyl methanesulfonate. Complementation analysis indicates that the present mutant collection includes alleles affecting 46 distinct zygote-specific functions. The frequency with which alleles at previously defined loci have been recovered in the most recent mutant searches suggests that as many as 30 additional zygote-specific loci may still remain to be identified. Nevertheless, the present collection should provide a powerful base for ultrastructural, biochemical, and molecular analysis of zygospore morphogenesis and dormancy in Chlamydomonas.
THE zygospore of Chlamydomonas allows the species to enter dormancy and to survive, often for prolonged periods, in an environment hostile to vegetative growth (![]()
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The Chlamydomonas zygospore differs from the vegetative cell in many ways (see ![]()
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The unraveling of developmental pathways is often facilitated by the application of classical genetic approaches that focus on the isolation of particular mutant strains unable to carry out one or more steps in the sequence. Haploid clones recovered after mutagenesis of C. monoica will form zygotes in clonal culture; all zygotes derived from one clone are thus homozygous for any zygote-specific mutations that may have been induced. The presence of the mutations is easily identified by visual inspection of the zygotes or by assaying for the absence of zygotes showing the typical resistance (e.g., resistance to chloroform vapors) of wild-type mated populations.
More than 10 years ago, we reported the first such zygote maturation (zym) mutant of C. monoica (![]()
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| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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Strains and culture conditions:
The mutants described here were derived from the C. monoica wild-type strains WT15c (cf. ![]()
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Mutagenesis:
Procedures for UV mutagenesis were as described by ![]()
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Identification of zym mutants:
We suspended 300010,000 individual clones obtained from postmutagenesis populations separately in 0.5 ml of low phosphate/low nitrate (LPN) medium (![]()
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Complementation testing:
Mutants obtained in a particular search were first crossed to each other in all pairwise combinations. Approximately equal numbers of cells of each strain were suspended together in 0.5 ml of LPN. Gamete differentiation thus occurred concurrently for both strains in the mixed population and a significant number of mating events were between strains ("crossing") rather than within strains ("selfing"). At the end of the 7-day period, an aliquot was examined by light microscopy for the presence of wild-type zygospores or was plated and exposed to chloroform vapors as a test for wild-type zygospore resistance. Any combinations yielding negative results were retested along with selfing controls (to verify that both strains produced gametes and mated). Pairs of mutants failing to yield wild-type zygospores were classified as noncomplementing and were assumed to carry mutations in genes affecting the same essential zygote-specific function.
Mutants chosen to represent each unique gene locus from a particular search were then crossed in all pairwise combinations to mutants obtained in earlier searches. To begin to estimate the number of zym loci in C. monoica, it is necessary to know the minimum number of independent times a particular locus has been mutagenized. For UV mutagenesis, because separate aliquots were irradiated on each plate and because several doses were used, mutants obtained from different aliquots or different doses could be assumed to be independent. With FdURD mutagenesis, multiple flasks were sometimes used as well as different mutagen concentrations; these also represented independent populations. Following EMS or MMS mutagenesis, cells were plated as separate aliquots, and because incubation times in the mutagen were short, cell division was unlikely to have occurred during mutagenesis in the majority of cells. Therefore, these separate aliquots from a single population, as well as the use of separate populations exposed to different concentrations of mutagen, provide sources of independent mutants. In all experiments, mutants obtained from the same aliquot and the same dose/concentration cannot be considered independent because of the period (23 days) of postmutagenesis recovery and growth that was allowed before subcloning and screening for mutants.
| RESULTS |
|---|
Isolation of zygosporulation mutants:
Mutant strains of C. monoica blocked at each of the stages of sexual reproduction depicted in Figure 1 have been obtained: strains (mtl-2, mtl-3, mtl-4, mtl-5, and mtl-6) that fail to agglutinate or establish mating pairs in clonal culture because of mating-type specific defects (![]()
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zym mutants have been obtained following treatment of wild-type strains with a variety of mutagens (see MATERIALS AND METHODS). Postmutagenesis subclones were individually self-mated and screened for the presence of morphologically normal zygospores either by visual inspection of mated cultures and/or by the recovery of zygote progeny after exposure of the mated population to chloroform vapors (see MATERIALS AND METHODS). Table 1 summarizes the results of numerous mutagenesis experiments aimed at the isolation of a variety of sexual cycle mutants. Data regarding the recovery of zym mutants only are included here.
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Although many of the zym mutants were phenotypically indistinguishable from one another, they can be generally classified as "early" or "late" mutants depending upon whether maturation has progressed to the point of primary wall release (see Figure 1). All of the previously published zym mutants are of the "early" class in which shed primary zygote walls are not found in clonal culture (![]()
Summary of complementation analyses:
In each mutant search, new zym mutants were first crossed to one another in all pairwise combinations. The formation of chloroform-resistant zygospores in these crosses confirmed that the zym mutations affected unique functions, i.e., that complementation had occurred in the hybrid zygotes. (Because the zym strains remain homothallic, maturation-defective zygotes of each parental type were also found in the mixed cultures.) Complementation analysis provided the information needed to determine how many gene loci were represented within the population of mutants recovered in a particular search (see Table 1). When two or more mutants failed to complement, one of these was chosen to represent the locus and was used as the "tester" in subsequent crosses to zym mutants recovered in earlier searches (see MATERIALS AND METHODS).
In summary, complementation analysis of all zym mutants recovered to date has identified 46 complementation groups. Each complementation group has now been assigned a zym locus number from 1 to 46. The zym-1, zym-6, zym-7, zym-8, zym-13, and zym-20 loci correspond to mutants with the same designations in ![]()
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Table 2 and Table 3 summarize the data from zym mutant searches in terms of the identification of new loci vs. recovery of a new allele at a previously identified locus. The mutagenesis experiments are listed chronologically beginning with the first zym isolation in 1982 and progressing through the most recent search in 1995. The number of zym loci was estimated on the basis of the frequency with which new alleles at previously identified loci were recovered, using the equation n = t/a where t is the number of test crosses performed (number of complementing zym strains in the present search x number of zym mutants in the pre-existing collection) and a is the number of cases of noncomplementation found in the test crosses (![]()
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Within any mutant search, multiple hits at a single locus are possible. However, only if the mutagenized population has been subdivided in some way before postmutagenesis growth has occurred is it possible to distinguish between truly independent alleles and duplicates produced by mitotic division prior to the isolation of clones for phenotypic analysis. Table 3 summarizes the results of complementation analysis in terms of the minimum number of independently induced mutant alleles now represented in our collection for each zym locus. Inspection of the data regarding the sources of these alleles indicates no obvious locus specificity for the mutagens used.
| DISCUSSION |
|---|
Homothallic sexual reproduction in C. monoica has simplified the recovery of numerous mutant strains showing altered zygote development. The frequency at which new loci were identified in the most recent search (Table 2) indicates that the collection is not yet complete and that only about half of the essential zygote specific loci may have been identified to date.
Many of the zym strains have been used in standard crosses to wild-type or to each other and tetrad analysis verifies that they carry mutations in single genes showing typical Mendelian segregation ratios (![]()
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If we assume an average zym mutation frequency of 6 x 10-3, the expected frequency of double mutants is about one per 25,00030,000 clones analyzed. The total number of clones analyzed in all of our searches to date is about 15,000, and one double mutant has been confirmed (see footnote to Table 1). Thus, we expect that few if any additional double mutants will be found in the present collection as we continue our genetic analyses. Furthermore, as the collection continues to increase in size, the probability of identifying double mutants simply by complementation testing also increases.
Intragenic complementation, if it occurs, would lead to an overestimation of the number of zym gene loci. In contrast, noncomplementation between alleles of different genes can also occur if the gene products from two loci function as a complex and the presence of both mutant and wild-type subunits in a common cytoplasm interferes with function (![]()
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However, it is also possible that no such mating-type-limited regulatory products are directly required for activation of the zygosporulation pathway. Flagellar agglutination in Chlamydomonas activates a cAMP-dependent signal transduction pathway (![]()
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The flagellar agglutinins (or mating-structure adhesion molecules) might be the only mating-type-specific gene products required for the entire progression of the sexual cycle. Although this appears not to be the case in C. reinhardtii (![]()
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Using a molecular approach, several investigators have identified genes showing zygote-specific transcription in C. reinhardtii. ![]()
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The large number of zym loci already identified in C. monoica underscores the complexity of the maturation process. Much of our present effort is being directed toward ultrastructural analysis of the zym strains to begin to clarify the particular aspect of zygote maturation being affected in each and to identify strains that may provide insights into the structure, assembly, and function of the various zygospore wall layers (see discussion by ![]()
| FOOTNOTES |
|---|
1 Present address: Department of Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 (formerly, Janine R. Parmelee). ![]()
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
|---|
The mutant collection described here has been obtained over the past 15 years with support from National Science Foundation grants PCM-8010926, DCB-8544584, DCB-8702381, DCB-8916208, and DMB-9106008. Expert technical assistance from ANDREW SALINGER and AMY RITTER is gratefully acknowledged. P. M. and A. M. received undergraduate research credit for their contributions to this work.
Manuscript received April 3, 1997; Accepted for publication October 6, 1997.
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