| Aspergillus nidulans | ||||||||||||||
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 A. nidulans inoculated on a complete fungal medium.
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| Scientific classification | ||||||||||||||
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| Aspergillus nidulans G Winter 1884 |
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Emericella nidulans |
Aspergillus nidulans (also called Emericella nidulans) is one of many species of filamentous fungi in the phylum Ascomycota. It has been an important research organism for studying eukaryotic cell biology[1] for over 50 years,[2] being used to study a wide range of subjects including recombination, DNA repair, mutation, cell cycle control, pathogenesis, and metabolism.[3] It is one of the few species in its genus able to form sexual spores through meiosis, allowing crossing of strains in the laboratory. A. nidulans is a homothallic fungus, meaning it is able to self-fertilize and form fruiting bodies in the absence of a mating partner.
The genome of A. nidulans, sequenced at the Broad Institute, was published in December 2005. [4] It is 30 million base pairs in size and is predicted to contain around 9,500 protein-coding genes on eight chromosomes.
Recently, several caspase-like proteases were isolated from A.nidulans samples under which programmed cell death had been induced. Findings such as these play a key role in determing the evolutionary conservation of the mitochondrion within the eukaryotic cell, and its role as an ancient proteobacterium capable of inducing cell death.
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