Nuclear DNA content of benomyl-induced segregants of diploid strains of the phytopathogenic fungus Armillaria mellea

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Abstract
The relative nuclear DNA contents of haploid, diploid and benomyl-induced segregants of diploid strains of the phytopathogenic fungus A. mellea were measured by mithramycin staining and fluorescence photometry. The diploid strains, originally recovered from sexually compatible matings of haploid strains, were heterozygous at mating-type and auxotrophic marker loci. The somatic segregants examined were derived by treatment of the diploid strains with the fungicide benomyl in previous studies. As expected, the diploid strains had approximately twice as much nuclear DNA as the haploid strains. Most segregants had near-haploid DNA contents and no detectable heterozygosity at the marker loci: these strains were most likely true haploids. Other segregants with near-haploid DNA contents were heterozygous at marker locus indicating that they were aneuploid. A minority of segregants had near-diploid DNA contents and may have been either aneuploid or diploid.