Q.Neurospora - an ascomycetes fungus has been used as a biological tool to understand the mechanism of plant genetics much in the same way as Drosophila has been used to study animal genetics. What makes Neurospora so important as a genetic tool?

Neurospora is valued as a genetic tool because it is an ascomycete fungus that has been used extensively in biochemical and genetic research, much as Drosophila has been used in animal genetics.

• As an ascomycete, Neurospora reproduces via a sexual cycle that produces ascospores through the sequence of plasmogamy, karyogamy and meiosis, yielding haploid spores.
• Its haploid spore stage means genetic outcomes of that sexual cycle can be studied directly, without one gene's effect being masked by a second copy, as can happen in diploid organisms. …

Neurospora belongs to the Ascomycetes, the sac-fungi, and its explicit importance is that it has been used extensively in biochemical and genetic work. Like other ascomycetes, its sexual cycle proceeds through plasmogamy (fusion of gamete protoplasms), karyogamy (fusion of nuclei), and finally meiosis in the resulting zygote, which yields haploid ascospores contained within sac-like asci.

Because the spores produced at the end of this cycle are haploid, any genetic change is not masked by a second, potentially dominant copy of a gene, as could happen in a diploid cell. This makes the outcomes of genetic crosses in Neurospora more directly observable than in many diploid organisms, which is part of why researchers have relied on it — comparably to how Drosophila has served animal genetics. …