Fungal genetics / J.R.S. Fincham and P.R. Day.

  • John Fincham
Date:
[1963]
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Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Credit: Fungal genetics / J.R.S. Fincham and P.R. Day. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    11/334 page VII
    PREFACE Although the great development of work on fungal genetics, which has occurred during the last few decades, has revealed a great deal which should be of interest to mycologists, most of this work, and this cer¬ tainly applies to our own, has not been motivated primarily by an interest in fungi for their own sake. Fungi happen to be uniquely suitable and convenient organisms for experimental attacks on a number of important genetic problems. With their rapid Ufe cycles and suitability for fine-structure genetic analysis, they share many of the advantages which have permitted such sensational progress in the fields of bacterial and viral genetics. At the same time, they have chromosomes which, though small, are easily visible and apparently orthodox in behaviour, and their system of sexual reproduction, with its alternation of regular haploid and diploid phases, is similar to that prevailing in higher plants and animals. Thus the fungi offer a good vantage point from which to survey a number of key problems of genetics, such as the mechanisms of genetic recombination and the nature of gene action. It is with these broader impHcations of fungal genetics that we are principally concerned in this book, although in Chapters 9 and 11 we have attempted to cover some of the more specifically fungal aspects also. A frequent source of difficulty for beginners in genetics, and even sometimes for experienced geneticists, is the tendency for genetic terms Uke gene, exchange, and so on to shift their meanings with the rapid developments of the subject. With the hope of minimizing confusion we have appended a Glossary, which, while it may not command universal agreement, will, at any rate, explain our own usage. We have been greatly helped by the co-operation of many friends and colleagues. In particular, Drs Raymond Barratt, L. S. OHve, David Perkins, J. R. Raper, Georges Rizet and David Wilkie have been generous in supplying data and manuscripts in advance of publication, and many others, too numerous to mention individually, have helped with advice on points of detail. We are particularly indebted to Dr 2 ix
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