A meiotic drive element in the maize pathogen Fusarium verticillioides is located within a 102-kb region of chromosome V.

Abstract

Fusarium verticillioides is an agriculturally important fungus because of its association with maize and its propensity to contaminate grain with toxic compounds. Some isolates of the fungus harbor a meiotic drive element known as Spore killer (SkK) that causes nearly all surviving meiotic progeny from an SkK x Spore killer-susceptible (SkS) cross to inherit the SkK allele. SkK has been mapped to chromosome V but the genetic element responsible for meiotic drive and spore killing has yet to be identified. In this study, we used cleaved amplified polymorphic sequence markers to genotype individual progeny from an SkK x SkS mapping population. We also sequenced the genomes of three progeny from the mapping population to determine their single nucleotide polymorphisms. These techniques allowed us to refine the location of SkK to a contiguous 102-kb region of chromosome V, herein referred to as the Sk locus. Relative to SkS genotypes, SkK genotypes have one extra gene within this locus for a total of 42 genes. The additional gene in SkK genotypes, named SKL1 for Spore Killer Locus 1, is the most highly expressed gene from the Sk locus during early stages of sexual development. The Sk locus also has three hypervariable regions, the longest of which includes SKL1. The possibility that SKL1, or another gene from the Sk locus, is an essential component of meiotic drive and spore killing is discussed.