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Branching in Fungal Hyphae and Fungal Tissues

Growing Mycelia in a Desktop Computer

  • Chapter
Branching Morphogenesis

Part of the book series: Molecular Biology Intelligence Unit ((MBIU))

Abstract

In mycelial fungi the formation of hyphal branches is the only way in which the number of growing points can be increased. Cross walls always form at right angles to the long axis of a hypha, and nuclear division is not necessarily linked to cell division. Consequently, no matter how many nuclear divisions occur and no matter how many cross walls are formed, there will be no increase in the number of hyphal tips unless a branch arises. Evidently, for the fungi, hyphal branch formation is the equivalent of cell division in animals, plants and protists. The position of origin of a branch and its direction and rate of growth are the crucial formative events in the development of fungal tissues and organs. Kinetic analyses have shown that fungal filamentous growth can be interpreted on the basis of a regular cell cycle, and encourage the view that a mathematical description of fungal growth might be generalised into predictive simulations of tissue formation. An important point to emphasise is that all kinetic analyses published to date deal exclusively with physical influences on growth and branching kinetics (like temperature, nutrients, etc.). In this chapter we extrapolate from the kinetics so derived to deduce how the biological control events might affect the growth vector of the hyphal apex to produce the patterns of growth and branching that characterise fungal tissues and organs. This chapter presents: (i) a review of the published mathematical models that attempt to describe fungal growth and branching; (ii) a review of the cell biology of fungal growth and branching, particularly as it relates to the construction of fungal tissues; and (iii) a section in which simulated growth patterns are developed as interactive three-dimensional computer visualisations in what we call the Neighbour-Sensing model of hyphal growth. Experiments with this computer model demonstrate that geometrical form of the mycelium emerges as a consequence of the operation of specific locally-effective hyphal tip interactions. It is not necessary to impose complex spatial controls over development of the mycelium to achieve particular morphologies.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biological Sciences, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

    David Moore & Liam J. McNulty

  2. Gediminas Technical University, Saulétekio al. 11, Vilnius, Lithuania

    Audrius Meskauskas

Authors
  1. David Moore
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  2. Liam J. McNulty
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  3. Audrius Meskauskas
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Moore, D., McNulty, L.J., Meskauskas, A. (2005). Branching in Fungal Hyphae and Fungal Tissues. In: Branching Morphogenesis. Molecular Biology Intelligence Unit. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-30873-3_4

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