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Eukaryotic Cell, July 2006, p. 1111-1125, Vol. 5, No. 7
1535-9778/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/EC.00026-06
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

The Vacuole System Is a Significant Intracellular Pathway for Longitudinal Solute Transport in Basidiomycete Fungi{dagger}

P. R. Darrah,1,{ddagger} M. Tlalka,1,{ddagger} A. Ashford,2 S. C. Watkinson,1 and M. D. Fricker1,{ddagger}*

Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3RB, United Kingdom,1 School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia2

Received 31 January 2006/ Accepted 24 April 2006

Mycelial fungi have a growth form which is unique among multicellular organisms. The data presented here suggest that they have developed a unique solution to internal solute translocation involving a complex, extended vacuole. In all filamentous fungi examined, this extended vacuole forms an interconnected network, dynamically linked by tubules, which has been hypothesized to act as an internal distribution system. We have tested this hypothesis directly by quantifying solute movement within the organelle by photobleaching a fluorescent vacuolar marker. Predictive simulation models were then used to determine the transport characteristics over extended length scales. This modeling showed that the vacuolar organelle forms a functionally important, bidirectional diffusive transport pathway over distances of millimeters to centimeters. Flux through the pathway is regulated by the dynamic tubular connections involving homotypic fusion and fission. There is also a strongly predicted interaction among vacuolar organization, predicted diffusion transport distances, and the architecture of the branching colony margin.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3RB, United Kingdom. Phone: 44 1865 275015. Fax: 44 1865 275074. E-mail: mark.fricker{at}plants.ox.ac.uk.

{dagger} Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://ec.asm.org/.

{ddagger} These authors contributed equally to this work.

Eukaryotic Cell, July 2006, p. 1111-1125, Vol. 5, No. 7
1535-9778/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/EC.00026-06
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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