Ima Fungus最新文献

This third annual edition of MycoNews starts with a message from IMA President Wieland Meyer regarding the adoption of new statutes for the IMA, the postponement of IMC12 to 2024, and announcing Marc Stadler as President-elect. The new statutes are included in full. News is provided on the launch of a World Fungus Day, acceptance of the term Funga as an equivalent to Fauna and Flora by the IUCN Species Survival Commission, new arrangements and dates for IMC12 now to be held in Maastricht in July 2024, and revised arrangements for the publication of proposals to change any rules governing the nomenclature of fungi. Reports are provided for IAL9, the symposium of the International Association for Lichenology in Brazil mainly conducted virtually, MycoRise Up! in Poland, and the centenary of the German Mycological Society (DGFM). Birthday greetings from IMA go to David Farr, Marie-Agnés Letrouit-Galinou, Maria Olech, Angela Restrepo, Carol Shearer, James Trappe, and Shun-ichi Udagawa. Tributes are also paid to the passing of the distinguished mycologists Heinz Butin, Karl Esser, Grégoire Hennebert, Jack Rogers, Kálman Vánky, and Bodo Wanke. The contribution concludes with news of seven new mycological books published in 2020-2021, and another forthcoming in 2022.

The mating compatibility in fungi is generally governed by genes located within a single or two unlinked mating type (MAT) loci. Hypsizygus marmoreus is an edible mushroom in the order Agaricales with a tetrapolar system, which contains two unlinked MAT loci-homeodomain (HD) transcription factor genes and pheromone/pheromone receptor genes (P/R). In this study, we analyzed the genetic structure and diversity of MAT loci in tetrapolar system of H. marmoreus through sequencing of 54 heterokaryon and 8 homokaryon strains. Although within the HD loci, the gene order was conserved, the gene contents were variable, and the HD loci haplotypes were further classified into four types. By analyzing the structure, phylogeny, and the HD transmissibility based on the progeny of these four HD mating-type loci types, we found that they were heritable and tightly linked at the HD loci. The P/R loci genes were found to comprise three pheromone receptors, three pheromones, and two pheromone receptor-like genes. Intra- and inter-specific phylogenetic analyses of pheromone receptors revealed that the STE3 genes were divided into three groups, and we thus theorize that they diverged before speciation. Comparative analysis of the MAT regions among 73 Basidiomycete species indicated that the diversity of HD and P/R loci in Agaricales and Boletales may contribute to mating compatibility. The number of HD genes were not correlated with the tetrapolar or bipolar systems. In H. marmoreus, the expression levels of these genes at HD and P/R loci of compatible strains were found higher than in those of homonuclear/homokaryotic strains, indicating that these mating genes acted as switches for mating processes. Further collinear analysis of HD loci in interspecific species found that HD loci contains conserved recombination hotspots showing major rearrangements in Coprinopsis cinerea and Schizophyllum commune, suggesting different mechanisms for evolution of physically linked MAT loci in these groups. It seems likely that gene rearrangements are common in Agaricales fungi around HD loci. Together, our study provides insights into the genomic basis of mating compatibility in H. marmoreus.

The fungal genus Entomophthora consists of highly host-specific pathogens that cause deadly epizootics in their various insect hosts. The most well-known among these is the "zombie fly" fungus E. muscae, which, like other Entomophthora species, elicits a series of dramatic behaviors in infected hosts to promote optimal spore dispersal. Despite having been first described more than 160 years ago, there are still many open questions about Entomophthora biology, including the molecular underpinnings of host behavior manipulation and host specificity. This review provides a comprehensive overview of our current understanding of the biology of Entomophthora fungi and enumerates the most pressing outstanding questions that should be addressed in the field. We briefly review the discovery of Entomophthora and provide a summary of the 21 recognized Entomophthora species, including their type hosts, methods of transmission (ejection of spores after or before host death), and for which molecular data are available. Further, we argue that this genus is globally distributed, based on a compilation of Entomophthora records in the literature and in online naturalist databases, and likely to contain additional species. Evidence for strain-level specificity of hosts is summarized and directly compared to phylogenies of Entomophthora and the class Insecta. A detailed description of Entomophthora's life-cycle and observed manipulated behaviors is provided and used to summarize a consensus for ideal growth conditions. We discuss evidence for Entomophthora's adaptation to growth exclusively inside insects, such as producing wall-less hyphal bodies and a unique set of subtilisin-like proteases to penetrate the insect cuticle. However, we are only starting to understand the functions of unusual molecular and genomic characteristics, such as having large > 1 Gb genomes full of repetitive elements and potential functional diploidy. We argue that the high host-specificity and obligate life-style of most Entomophthora species provides ample scope for having been shaped by close coevolution with insects despite the current general lack of such evidence. Finally, we propose six major directions for future Entomophthora research and in doing so hope to provide a foundation for future studies of these fungi and their interaction with insects.

Fungal-fungal interaction often leads to the change in metabolite profile of both the interacting fungus which may have potential implication in industry or agriculture. In the present study, we performed two sets of fungal-fungal interaction-Trametes coccinea (F3) with Leiotrametes lactinea (F9) and T. coccinea (F3) with T. versicolor (F1) to understand the changes in the metabolite profile during the interaction process and how this process impacts the hyphal/mycelial morphology of the participating fungi. The metabolites produced during interaction of T. coccinea (F3) with L. lactinea (F9) and T. coccinea (F3) with T. versicolor (F1) was analysed through liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectroscopy (LC-MS). Most of the metabolites secreted or produced during interaction are associated with defensive response. Further, visualization with scanning electron microscopy revealed that interaction between the tested fungi led to the changes in the hyphal morphology. The bipartite fungal interaction resulted in the production of a dark brown colour pigment-melanin as confirmed by the LC-MS, FTIR and NMR analysis. Moreover, the fungal-fungal interaction also led to increase in the production of laccase, a group of multicopper oxidases involved in detoxification of toxic compounds. Further, increased activity of superoxide dismutase, an enzyme that catalyzes the dismutation of the superoxide anion to hydrogen peroxide was also recorded during fungal-fungal interaction. Quantitative real-time PCR revealed upregulation of lcc1 (encoding a laccase enzyme) and few other stress related genes of T. versicolor during its hyphal interaction with T. coccinea, suggesting a direct correlation between laccase production and melanin production.

Background: The genome sequence data of more than 65985 species are publicly available as of October 2021 within the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database alone and additional genome sequences are available in other databases and also continue to accumulate at a rapid pace. However, an error-free functional annotation of these genome is essential for the research communities to fully utilize these data in an optimum and efficient manner.

Results: An analysis of proteome sequence data of 689 fungal species (7.15 million protein sequences) was conducted to identify the presence of functional annotation errors. Proteins associated with calcium signaling events, including calcium dependent protein kinases (CDPKs), calmodulins (CaM), calmodulin-like (CML) proteins, WRKY transcription factors, selenoproteins, and proteins associated with the terpene biosynthesis pathway, were targeted in the analysis. Gene associated with CDPKs and selenoproteins are known to be absent in fungal genomes. Our analysis, however, revealed the presence of proteins that were functionally annotated as CDPK proteins. However, InterproScan analysis indicated that none of the protein sequences annotated as "calcium dependent protein kinase" were found to encode calcium binding EF-hands at the regulatory domain. Similarly, none of a protein sequences annotated as a "selenocysteine" were found to contain a Sec (U) amino acid. Proteins annotated as CaM and CMLs also had significant discrepancies. CaM proteins should contain four calcium binding EF-hands, however, a range of 2-4 calcium binding EF-hands were present in the fungal proteins that were annotated as CaM proteins. Similarly, CMLs should possess four calcium binding EF-hands, but some of the CML annotated fungal proteins possessed either three or four calcium binding EF-hands. WRKY transcription factors are characterized by the presence of a WRKY domain and are confined to the plant kingdom. Several fungal proteins, however, were annotated as WRKY transcription factors, even though they did not contain a WRKY domain.

Conclusion: The presence of functional annotation errors in fungal genome and proteome databases is of considerable concern and needs to be addressed in a timely manner.

In this study, the complete mitochondrial genome of O. gracilis was sequenced and assembled before being compared with related species. As the second largest mitogenome reported in the family Ophiocordycipitaceae, the mitogenome of O. gracilis (voucher OG201301) is a circular DNA molecule of 134,288 bp that contains numerous introns and longer intergenomic regions. UCA was detected as anticodon in tRNA-Sec of O. gracilis, while comparative mitogenome analysis of nine Ophiocordycipitaceae fungi indicated that the order and contents of PCGs and rRNA genes were considerably conserved and could descend from a common ancestor in Ophiocordycipitaceae. In addition, the expansion of mitochondrial organization, introns, gene length, and order of O. gracilis were determined to be similar to those of O. sinensis, which indicated common mechanisms underlying adaptive evolution in O. gracilis and O. sinensis. Based on the mitochondrial gene dataset (15 PCGs and 2 RNA genes), a close genetic relationship between O. gracilis and O. sinensis was revealed through phylogenetic analysis. This study is the first to investigate the molecular evolution, phylogenetic pattern, and genetic structure characteristics of mitogenome in O. gracilis. Based on the obtained results, the mitogenome of O. gracilis can increase understanding of the genetic diversity and evolution of cordycipitoid fungi.