Sporulation of the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae - equivalent to gametogenesis in higher organisms, is a complex differentiation program induced by starvation of cells for nitrogen and carbon. Such environmental conditions activate coordinated, sequential changes in gene expression leading to production of haploid, stress-resistant spores. Sporulation comprises two rounds of meiosis coupled with spore morphogenesis and is tightly controlled to ensure viable progeny. This review concerns the regulation of differentiation process by nutritional and transcriptional signals.
16-chromosome forms of red clover (2n=14+2) were crossed to six Trifolium species with the chromosome number 2n=16. Hybrid plants were derived from the cross of a stable 16-chromosome red clover T. pratense with T. diffusum (2n=16). No seeds were obtained from reciprocal crosses. F₁ hybrid plants were morphologically more similar to T. diffusum, whereas their other characters, e.g. flower number per head, were intermediate between the species crossed. All F₁ hybrids had the chromosome number 2n=16. Meiosis proceeded with large irregularities. The average number of bivalents per cell was 3.32, and that of univalents - 9.98. Univalents exhibited a high stickiness and frequently formed "end-to-end" configurations and chains consisting of about a dozen of so chromosomes. Bivalents were straight. Lagging chromosomes and chromosome bridges were observed during AI; lagging chromosomes were also found during AII. After an equalizing division, tetrads and different from them microspore polyads were formed. 16-chromosome hybrids were male- and female-sterile. No hybrids were obtained from the stable 16-chromosome red clover T. pratense (n=7 chromosomes) crossed to the selected clover species (T. apertum Bobr., T. alexandrinum L. and others) with n=8 chromosomes.