Regulation of pathogenic development in the corn smut fungus Ustilago maydis.

Abstract In Ustilago maydis, the b mating type locus constitutes the central regulatory domain for pathogenic development. The b locus encodes two homeodomain proteins that are thought to function as transcriptional regulators. Here we describe our current view of the different regulatory pathways in which the b locus is involved. We emphasize on the development of tools for the isolation of genes that are directly regulated by b homeodomain proteins.