The History of Neurospora Research
Neurospora was discovered by bakers in France as a common contaminant in their foodstuffs. This lead to the use of Neurospora, by Bernard Dodge, as a potential genetic model organism. Dodge’s efforts lead to the use of Neurospora by the Hunt group, used as a text book example of meiotic tetrads. This lead to Beadle and Tatum demonstrating the one gene/one enzyme hypothesis, putting Neurospora on the map with a Nobel Prize. The power and utility of Neurospora lead to the founding of the Fungal Genetics Stock Center, a model of stock centers around the world.
Image credit Davis and Perkins Nature 2002
Since the initial genetic work using Neurospora, the work done with Neurospora has exploded, describing the function of the circadian clock, methylation, quelling, developmental biology, and much more. This lead to the founding of the Neurospora bi-annual meeting that eventually became the Fungal Genetics meeting, which now boasts 1K participants.
Image credit Davis and Perkins Nature 2002