Practice question

Fungal sexual cycle comprises orderly sequence: plasmogamy, karyogamy, meiosis precisely regulated by mating-type loci. Plasmogamy denotes fusion of cytoplasm from two compatible parental mycelia bringing haploid nuclei together in same cell without nuclear fusion. Occurs after anastomosis between hyphae of opposite mating types determined by MAT genes. Results in dikaryotic or heterokaryotic stage containing genetically distinct nuclei. Distinguished from karyogamy which fuses nuclei into diploid, meiosis reduces ploidy, mitosis produces clones. Plasmogamy therefore represents initial cytoplasmic union enabling subsequent recombination.