fungal sex   Penicillium chrysogenum bacteria  Penicillium
bacteria were thought to reproduce asexually. A new study shows
that a certain strain of the bacteria still has the genes
required to carry out sexual reproduction and that these genes
are linked to the production of penicillin. From SciAm:  Paul
Dyer, a fungal biologist at the University of Nottingham in
England, suspected that P. chrysogenum would reproduce sexually
if given the right encouragement. A complete sequencing of the
fungi’s genome revealed that P. chyrosogenum still carried the
genes needed for mating. “That told us that there was perhaps
sexual compatibility there,” he says. So Dyer and researchers at
several other European institutions tried to find the ideal
conditions that would encourage P.chrysogenum to have sex.
First, Dyer and his colleagues paired strains with compatible
mating genes (P. chyrosogenum has two different sexes) and grew
them with different food and light conditions. The winning
combination was an oatmeal-base supp