Calculating the Frequency of Bioluminescence Genes in Armillaria mellea by Screening a Sample of Mutant Isolates

Abstract

Despite bioluminescence being a widespread trait in several groups of organisms and having revolutionary applications in genetic engineering, the genes that are responsible for the trait still remain largely undiscovered in most organisms. The purpose of this research was to estimate the number of genes responsible for bioluminescence in Armillaria mellea. This was performed by screening 154 mutagenized isolates of Armillaria mellea for non-bioluminescence variants that have had one gene required for proper luminescence successfully disrupted. The resulting ratio of non-bioluminescent phenotypes to normal bioluminescent phenotypes was used along with Armillaria mellea’s total genome size and average length of each gene to estimate the number of genes that code for bioluminescence based on the probability of how many non-bioluminescent phenotypes should be observed given the sample size. From this research, we concluded with 95 percent confidence that there are between 210 and 272 genes on the Armillaria mellea genome that code for bioluminescence.