life inspired

"Unusual strains of the pathogen Candida albicans have been found that contain a single set of chromosomes. Formation of such haploid strains weeds out damaged copies of genes to promote evolution in the human body. Fungi exhibit the most complex and diverse strategies for mating and sexual reproduction in nature. [...] Hickman et al. report the isolation of C. albicans strains that have shed one copy of each chromosome, leading to a haploid state. These haploid strains can mate to regenerate diploid strains, and can undergo all of the developmental life-cycle stages normally seen in the organism." Full news article @ Nature. Original article: Nature (2013) doi:10.1038/nature11865.

Labels: mating; genome organization;