Alteration of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit 2 gene in the [exn-5] mutant of Neurospora crassa

Role of Mitochondrial DNA in the Senescence and Hypovirulence of Fungi and Potential for Plant Disease Control

The unique coenocytic anatomy of the mycelia of the filamentous fungi and the formation of anastomoses between hyphae from different mycelia enable the intracellular accumulation and infectious transmission of plasmids and mutant mitochondrial DNAs (mtDNAs) that cause senescence. For reasons that are not fully apparent, mitochondria that are rendered dysfunctional by so-called "suppressive" mtDNA mutations proliferate rapidly in growing cells and gradually displace organelles that contain wild-type mtDNA molecules and are functional. The consequence of this process is senescence and death if the suppressive mtDNA contains a lethal mutation. Suppressive mtDNA mutations and mitochondrial plasmids can elicit cytoplasmically transmissible "mitochondrial hypovirulence" syndromes in at least some of the phytopathogenic fungi. In the chestnut-blight fungus Cryphonectria parasitica, the pattern of asexual transmission of mutant mtDNAs and mitochondrial plasmids resembles the pattern of "infectious" transmission displayed by the attenuating virus that is most commonly used for the biological control of this fungus. At least some of the attenuating mitochondrial hypovirulence factors are inherited maternally in crosses, whereas the viruses are not transmitted sexually. The natural control of blight in an isolated stand of chestnut trees has resulted from the invasion of the local population of C. parasitica by a senescence-inducing mutant mtDNA. Moreover, a mitochondrial plasmid, pCRY1, attenuates at least some virulent strains of C. parasitica, suggesting that such factors could be applied to control plant diseases caused by fungi.

Senescence is coupled to induction of an oxidative phosphorylation stress response by mitochondrial DNA mutations inNeurospora

In Neurospora and other genera of filamentous fungi, the occurrence of a mutation affecting one or several genes on the chromosome of a single mitochondrion can trigger the gradual displacement of wild-type mitochondrial DNA by mutant molecules in asexually propagated cultures. As this displacement progresses, the cultures senesce gradually and die if the mitochondrial mutation is lethal, or develop respiratory deficiencies if the mutation is nonlethal. Mitochondrial mutations that elicit the displacement of wild-type mitochondrial DNAs are said to be "suppressive." In the strictly aerobic fungi, suppressiveness appears to be associated exclusively with mutations that diminish cytochrome-mediated mitochondrial redox functions and, thus, curtail oxidative phosphorylation. In Neurospora, suppressiveness is connected to a regulatory system through which cells respond to chemical or genetic insults to the mitochondrial electron-transport system by increasing the number of mitochondria approximately threefold. Mutant alleles of two nuclear genes, osr-1 and osr-2, affect this stress response and abrogate the suppressiveness of mitochondrial mutations. Therefore, we propose that mitochondrial mutations are suppressive because their phenotypic effect is limited to the organelles within which the mutant DNA is located. Consequently, mitochondria that are "homozygous" for a mutant allele are functionally crippled and are induced to proliferate more rapidly than the normal mitochondria with which they coexist in a common protoplasm. While this model provides a plausible explanation for the suppressiveness of mitochondrial mutations in the strictly aerobic fungi, it may not account for the biased transmission of mutant mitochondrial DNAs in the facultatively anaerobic yeasts. Key words: mitochondria, mitochondrial DNA, mutations, suppressiveness, oxidative phosphorylation, stress response.