Model of transition to extant bipolar systems from an ancestral tetrapolar system in basidiomycete MAT loci. Model of transition to extant bipolar systems from an ancestral tetrapolar system in basidiomycete MAT loci. Linkage of the a and b loci generates an extended MAT locus in the U. hordei and M. globosa genomes. In the C. neoformans genome, gene acquisition occurred into the MAT locus, and the two loci were then linked, generating an intermediate tripolar system in which the a and b loci were linked in one mating type MAT allele with the other mating alleles unlinked, followed by gene conversion and chromosome rearrangement to generate the extant extended bipolar MAT locus. Soo Chan Lee et al. Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. 2010; doi:10.1128/MMBR.00005-10