Red Raper
| Red Raper | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1911 Davidson County, North Carolina |
| Died | 1974 (aged 63) |
| Occupation | American mycologist |
John "Red" Raper was a mycologist who studied genetic control of sexuality in fungi, mating type compatibility, fungal genetics, and taught at Harvard University among other places.
Red Raper was a pioneer in the study of fungal sexual genetics. He studied mating systems in filamentous heterotrophs, beginning with the aquatic genus Achlya. Once thought to be fungi because of their filamentous growth form and nutritional habits, Achlya and other water molds are now known to belong to the Kingdom Chromalveolata. Red and Carlene (Cardy), later studied the genetic control of sexual reproduction in the gilled mushroom Schizophyllum commune. Red realized early on there were fungi that differed in aspects of compatibility and attributed these to what he called incompatibility factors A and B, further differentiating α and β in each. Some fungi have two mating types, termed bipolar, and others including some Red worked on, have thousands of mating types due to a more complicated mating type determination system. These two extreme strategies are thought to be involved with manipulating the chance of out versus self-crossing as evolutionary strategies. He and Cardy studied the events preceding karyogamy, including the transition from monokaryotic to dikaryotic. Much of Red’s work has spawned many research questions about sex in fungi addressed more recently using model organisms like Saccharomyces cerevisiae, , and Candida albicans. His research laid the foundation for the current knowledge body about somatic and sexual compatibility in fungi. Through the influence of Red's work, it is now understood that mating-type identity is determined by regions of the genome called mating type or MAT loci. These loci contain protein-coding regions for G protein-coupled receptors that sense ligands with varying specificity and signal through Mitogen-activated protein kinase cascades, as well as peptide pheromones and transcription factors involved in mate sensation, selection and reproduction.
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