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Genetic manipulation of Aspergillus nidulans: meiotic progeny for genetic analysis and strain construction

Nature Protocols volume 2, pages 811–821 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

The multicellular microbial eukaryote Aspergillus nidulans is an excellent model for the study of a wide array of biological processes. Studies in this system contribute significantly to understanding fundamental biological principles and are relevant for biotechnology and industrial applications, as well as human, animal and plant fungal pathogenesis. A. nidulans is easily manipulated using classical and molecular genetics. Here, we describe the storage and handling of A. nidulans and procedures for genetic crossing, progeny analysis and growth testing. These procedures are used for Mendelian analysis of segregation of alleles to show whether a mutant phenotype segregates as a single gene and independent assortment of genes to determine the linkage relationship between genes. Meiotic crossing is used for construction of multiple mutant strains for genetic analysis. Genetic crossing and analysis of progeny can be undertaken in 2–3 weeks and growth testing takes 2–3 days.

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Figure 1: Life cycle of A. nidulans.
Figure 2: Tools for physical transfer of A. nidulans conidia.
Figure 3: Sexual crossing of A. nidulans.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Q. Lang for photography and K. Nguygen for technical assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Genetics, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, 3010, Victoria, Australia

    Richard B Todd, Meryl A Davis & Michael J Hynes

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  1. Richard B Todd
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Correspondence to Richard B Todd.

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Todd, R., Davis, M. & Hynes, M. Genetic manipulation of Aspergillus nidulans: meiotic progeny for genetic analysis and strain construction. Nat Protoc 2, 811–821 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nprot.2007.112

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