Three heterothallic Mexican isolates (Mex 1, Mex 2, and Mex 3) of Didy
mium iridis belong to the reproductively isolated A5 mating series of
this morphospecies. This was unexpected in that the sole previous A5 i
solate was from Georgia and the Mexican isolates were collected in sou
thern Mexico adjacent to the Central American Al series region. The Me
xican isolates were also unusual in that mating alleles did not genera
lly segregate in a normal 1:1 ratio. The A5(3) or A5(4) mating types,
when present in a plasmodium, caused the partial or total elimination
of the other mating allele during growth or sporulation. Isolates from
Guatemala (Gua 2) and Panama (Pan 8) were found to belong to the Cent
ral American Al mating series. Each of these isolates was collected as
a haploid selfed plasmodium which contained a single mating type resp
ectively designated A1(13) and A1(14). Four nonheterothallic isolates
from California (Ca 8), Guatemala (Gua 1), Japan (jap 1) and South Afr
ica (SA 2) were also investigated.