Neurospora, a potential fungal organism for experimental and evolutionary ecology

Neurospora has been a successful eukaryotic model organism for addressing a wide range of biological questions under laboratory conditions. This success was a result of early domestication of the organism for rigorous experimentation. As a result of concerted efforts by many excellent researchers for over a century, there has been enormous amount of genetic resources collected and generated for this organism. These genetic resources and available molecular tools provide an exciting opportunity for empirical testing of evolutionary and ecological questions in the natural environment. In this article, we examine the potential of Neurospora for ecological studies.