A single meiotic product dominates inheritance in Mucor circinelloides

Meiotic recombination occurs in Mucor circinelloides, but all sexual spores from a single zygospore share an identical nuclear genotype, indicating inheritance from one meiotic product.

• Why it matters: Sexual reproduction in Mucorales has been hard to study, and reported inheritance patterns have seemed inconsistent with conventional meiosis, leaving the rules of inheritance unclear.
• What they did: Telomere-to-telomere chromosome assemblies from compatible mating types were generated, and parental markers across the genome were analyzed to demonstrate recombination and independent chromosome assortment.
• The result: Viable progeny from each zygospore derive from a single meiotic product, and mitochondrial inheritance is uniparental from the (+) mating-type parent, revealing controlled inheritance despite recombination.