Sex, light and carotenes: the development of Phycomyces

Phycomyces blakesleeanus is known for the elaborate behaviour of its sporangiophores (fruiting bodies). Sporangiophore development is exquisitely sensitive to blue light, easy to describe quantitatively, pliable to genetic and biochemical research, and reminiscent in many details of other photoresponses in the same and in other organisms. The developmental and behavioural processes of Phycomyces share a number of genes. A combinatorial use of gene expression appears to be the basis for the complexities observed in this fungus.