| RefNo | EC/1999/07 |
| Level | Item |
| Title | Casselton, Lorna Ann: certificate of election to the Royal Society |
| Date | 1992 |
| Description | Citation typed |
| Citation | Distinguished for her genetical and molecular analysis of the mushroom Coprinus cinereus, in particular of the incompatibility mating type factors, A and B. She made diploids which she used to demonstrate for the first time that hyphal fusion, nuclear migration, the formation of a dikaryon ending in sexual reproduction are all controlled by a positive stimulus triggered by the meeting of unlike alleles of the A and B factors. This is in contrast to the oppositional inhibition of the final stages of sexual reproduction by the meeting of like alleles in flowering plants. Using elegant genetic and molecular techniques with different genetic stocks including gene deletions and gene fusions, she has shown that the A factor is a supergene of several multiallelic genes encoding proteins with homeodomains binding to DNA. These trigger sexual development by the association of A proteins with different homeodomains sequences (HD1 and HD2). A factors contain several duplicate genes coding for the A protein but it is only necessary for any one of these genes to be allelic unmatched to trigger the whole sexual development. Other domains characteristic of transcription factors found in mammalian cells suggest that helical regions adjacent to the homeodomain may discriminate between compatible and incompatible protein associations. |
| AccessStatus | Closed |
Fellows associated with this archive
| Code | PersonName | Dates |
| NA2341 | Casselton; Lorna Ann (1938 - 2014) | 1938 - 2014 |