Forty new genomes shed light on sexual reproduction and the origin of tetraploidy in Microsporidia
Fig 10
Simplified proposed generalized lifecycle for Microsporidia.
Our proposed model posits that each nucleus is a diploid, and that microsporidian reproduction mirrors reproduction in Fungi with stages similar to karyogamy, plasmogamy, and a stable “heterokaryon” (known as a diplokaryon in Microsporidia). Importantly, both the diplokaryotic and monokaryotic phases are parasitic, and species may spend most of their lifecycle in one or the other phase, giving rise to “diploid” and “tetraploid” lineages. The figure was manually drawn using InkScape (version 1.2.2).