{
  "abstract": "Fungal pathogens often carry dispensable chromosomes (DCs) that confer a selective advantage in adverse environments or during host infection but can be spontaneously lost under non-selective conditions. How DCs are maintained in evolving populations remains poorly understood. Here we show that a meiotic driver known as Spore Killer (spok), located on a giant Starship transposon, limits spontaneous loss of a conserved DC in the cross-kingdom pathogen Fusarium oxysporum. Transfer of a functional spok gene, but not of a killing-deficient mutant allele, to a mitotically unstable DC significantly reduced its loss rate, while spok deletion from a stably maintained DC increased loss frequency. Competition experiments between isogenic strains carrying a functional or a killing-deficient spok allele revealed a dramatic fitness gain conferred by Spok killing activity, which required transmission by hyphal fusion. Thus, spoks and their Starship carriers benefit fungal hosts by preventing DC loss and preserving long-term metabolic and pathogenic plasticity.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Universidad de Cordoba, Department of Genetics"
  ],
  "article_type": "New results",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 7,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "G. Puebla-Planas"
    },
    {
      "name": "A. Doddi"
    },
    {
      "name": "D. H. Ayhan"
    },
    {
      "name": "P. Gutierrez-Escribano"
    },
    {
      "name": "L.-J. Ma"
    },
    {
      "name": "M. S. Lopez-Berges"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "A. Di Pietro"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/8yks61svcxnyk.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.64898/2026.10.04.756499",
  "fulltext_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.04.756499v1.full",
  "id": "8yks61svcxnyk",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.04.756499v1",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "biorxiv",
      "microbiology"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "1312|Fungal and yeast genetics research"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7220691899",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.04.756499v1.full.pdf",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-04",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/8yks61svcxnyk.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:26:07Z",
      "native_id": "10.64898/2026.10.04.756499",
      "source": "biorxiv",
      "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.04.756499v1"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "biorxiv:microbiology",
      "subfield": "microbiology"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Killer meiotic driver prevents chromosome loss and enhances fitness in a fungal pathogen",
  "title_text": "Killer meiotic driver prevents chromosome loss and enhances fitness in a fungal pathogen",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:26:07Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/8yks61svcxnyk",
  "venue": "bioRxiv",
  "versions": []
}