Genome[edit]
The A. nidulans genome was sequenced in a collaboration between Monsanto and the Broad Institute.[5] A sequence with 13-fold coverage was publicly released in March 2003;[5] analysis of the annotated genome was published in Nature in December 2005.[6] It is 30 million base pairs in size and is predicted to contain around 9,500 protein-coding genes on eight chromosomes.
Recently, several caspase-like proteases were isolated from A. nidulans samples under which programmed cell death had been induced. Findings such as these play a key role in determining the evolutionary conservation of the mitochondrion within the eukaryotic cell, and its role as an ancient proteobacterium capable of inducing cell death.