Mitosis in filamentous fungi: how we got where we are

This review traces the principal advances in the study of mitosis in filamentous fungi from its beginnings near the end of the 19(th) century to the present day. Meiosis and mitosis had been accurately described and illustrated by the second decade of the present century and were known to closely resemble nuclear divisions in higher eukaryotes. This information was effectively lost in the mid-1950s, and the essential features of mitosis were then rediscovered from about the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s. Interest in the forces that separate chromatids and spindle poles during fungal mitosis followed closely on the heels of detailed descriptions of the mitotic apparatus in vivo and ultrastructurally during this and the following decade. About the same time, fundamental studies of the structure of fungal chromatin and biochemical characterization of fungal tubulin were being carried out. These cytological and biochemical studies set the stage for a surge of renewed interest in fungal mitosis that was issued in by the age of molecular biology. Filamentous fungi have provided model studies of the cytology and genetics of mitosis, including important advances in the study of mitotic forces, microtubule-associated motor proteins, and mitotic regulatory mechanisms.