-
Current Opinion in Chemical Biology Apr 2016Basidiomycota fungi have received little attention for applications in biocatalysis and biotechnology and remain greatly understudied despite their importance for carbon... (Review)
Review
Basidiomycota fungi have received little attention for applications in biocatalysis and biotechnology and remain greatly understudied despite their importance for carbon recycling, ecosystem functioning and medicinal properties. The steady influx of genome data has facilitated detailed studies aimed at understanding the evolution and function of fungal lignocellulose degradation. These studies and recent explorations into the secondary metabolomes have uncovered large portfolios of enzymes useful for biocatalysis and biosynthesis. This review will provide an overview of the biocatalytic repertoires of Basidiomycota characterized to date with the hope of motivation more research into the chemical toolkits of this diverse group of fungi.
Topics: Basidiomycota; Biocatalysis; Genes, Fungal; Oxidation-Reduction
PubMed: 26812494
DOI: 10.1016/j.cbpa.2016.01.002 -
Natural Product Reports Apr 2021Covering: up to September 2020 Mushroom-forming fungi of the division Basidiomycota have traditionally been recognised as prolific producers of structurally diverse and... (Review)
Review
Covering: up to September 2020 Mushroom-forming fungi of the division Basidiomycota have traditionally been recognised as prolific producers of structurally diverse and often bioactive secondary metabolites, using the methods of chemistry for research. Over the past decade, -omics technologies were applied on these fungi, and sophisticated heterologous gene expression platforms emerged, which have boosted research into the genetic and biochemical basis of the biosyntheses. This review provides an overview on experimentally confirmed natural product biosyntheses of basidiomycete polyketides, amino acid-derived products, terpenoids, and volatiles. We also present challenges and solutions particular to natural product research with these fungi. 222 references are cited.
Topics: Basidiomycota; Genes, Fungal; Metabolic Networks and Pathways
PubMed: 33404035
DOI: 10.1039/d0np00077a -
Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek May 2019Stypella vermiformis is a heterobasidiomycete producing minute gelatinous basidiocarps on rotten wood of conifers in the Northern Hemisphere. In the current literature,...
Stypella vermiformis is a heterobasidiomycete producing minute gelatinous basidiocarps on rotten wood of conifers in the Northern Hemisphere. In the current literature, Stypella papillata, the genus type of Stypella (described from Brazil), is treated as a taxonomic synonym of S. vermiformis. In the present paper, we revise the type material of S. papillata and a number of specimens addressed to S. vermiformis. As a result, the presumed synonymy of S. papillata and S. vermiformis is rejected and the genus Stypella is restricted to the single species S. papillata. Morphological and molecular phylogenetic studies of specimens from the Northern Hemisphere corresponding to the current concept of S. vermiformis uncovered three species from two newly described genera. S. vermiformis s.str. is distributed in temperate Europe and has small-sized basidia and basidiospores, and it is placed in a new genus, Mycostilla. Another genus, Stypellopsis, is created for two other species, the North American Stypellopsis farlowii, comb. nov., and the North European Stypellopsis hyperborea, sp. nov. Basidia and basidiospores of Stypellopsis spp. are larger than in Mycostilla vermiformis but other morphological characters are very similar. In addition, Spiculogloea minuta (Spiculogloeomycetes, Pucciniomycotina) is reported as new to Norway, parasitising basidiocarps of M. vermiformis and Tulasnella spp.
Topics: Basidiomycota; Brazil; Europe; Norway; Phylogeny; Spores, Fungal
PubMed: 30535961
DOI: 10.1007/s10482-018-01209-9 -
MBio Feb 2021Sexual reproduction in fungi relies on proteins with well-known functions encoded by the mating type () loci. In the Basidiomycota, loci are often bipartite, with the...
Sexual reproduction in fungi relies on proteins with well-known functions encoded by the mating type () loci. In the Basidiomycota, loci are often bipartite, with the locus encoding pheromone precursors and pheromone receptors and the locus encoding heterodimerizing homeodomain transcription factors (Hd1/Hd2). The interplay between different alleles of these genes within a single species usually generates at least two compatible mating types. However, a minority of species are homothallic, reproducing sexually without an obligate need for a compatible partner. Here, we examine the organization and function of the loci of , a species in the order Cystofilobasidiales, which is unusually rich in homothallic species. We determined gene content and organization in and found that it resembles a mating type of the closely related heterothallic species To explain the homothallic sexual reproduction observed in , we examined HD protein interactions in the two species and determined gene expression both in a natural setting and upon heterologous expression in , a homothallic species belonging to a clade sister to that of We conclude that the molecular basis for homothallism in appears to be distinct from that previously established for Unlike in the latter species, homothallism in may involve constitutive activation or dispensability of the pheromone receptor and the functional replacement of the usual Hd1/Hd2 heterodimer by an Hd2 homodimer. Overall, our results suggest that homothallism evolved multiple times within the Cystofilobasidiales. Sexual reproduction is important for the biology of eukaryotes because it strongly impacts the dynamics of genetic variation. In fungi, although sexual reproduction is usually associated with the fusion between cells belonging to different individuals (heterothallism), sometimes a single individual is capable of completing the sexual cycle alone (homothallism). Homothallic species are unusually common in a fungal lineage named Cystofilobasidiales. Here, we studied the genetic bases of homothallism in one species in this lineage, , and found it to be different in several aspects from those of another homothallic species, , belonging to the genus most closely related to Our results strongly suggest that homothallism evolved independently in and , lending support to the idea that transitions between heterothallism and homothallism are not as infrequent as previously thought. Our work also helps to establish the Cystofilobasidiales as a model lineage in which to study these transitions.
Topics: Basidiomycota; Evolution, Molecular; Fungal Proteins; Genes, Mating Type, Fungal; Phylogeny; Receptors, Pheromone; Reproduction
PubMed: 33593979
DOI: 10.1128/mBio.03130-20 -
Folia Microbiologica Jun 2020Fungi are considered model organisms for the analysis of important phenomena of eukaryotes. For example, some of them have been described as models to understand the...
Fungi are considered model organisms for the analysis of important phenomena of eukaryotes. For example, some of them have been described as models to understand the phenomenon of multicellularity acquisition by different unicellular organisms phylogenetically distant. Interestingly, in this work, we describe the multicellular development in the model fungus S. reilianum. We observed that Sporisorium reilianum, a Basidiomycota cereal pathogen that at neutral pH grows with a yeast-like morphology during its saprophytic haploid stage, when incubated at acid pH grew in the form of multicellular clusters. The multicellularity observed in S. reilianum was of clonal type, where buds of "stem" cells growing as yeasts remain joined by their cell wall septa, after cytokinesis. The elaboration and analysis of a regulatory network of S. reilianum showed that the putative zinc finger transcription factor CBQ73544.1 regulates a number of genes involved in cell cycle, cellular division, signal transduction pathways, and biogenesis of cell wall. Interestingly, homologous of these genes have been found to be regulated during Saccharomyces cerevisiae multicellular growth. In adddition, some of these genes were found to be negatively regulated during multicellularity of S. reilianum. With these data, we suggest that S. reilianum is an interesting model for the study of multicellular development.
Topics: Acids; Basidiomycota; Cell Cycle; Cell Division; Fungal Proteins; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; Phylogeny; Signal Transduction
PubMed: 31721091
DOI: 10.1007/s12223-019-00755-7 -
Mycological Research Apr 2008To understand the biogeography of truffle-like fungi, DNA sequences were analysed from representative taxa of Hysterangiales. Multigene phylogenies and the results of...
To understand the biogeography of truffle-like fungi, DNA sequences were analysed from representative taxa of Hysterangiales. Multigene phylogenies and the results of ancestral area reconstructions are consistent with the hypothesis of an Australian, or eastern Gondwanan, origin of Hysterangiales with subsequent range expansions to the Northern Hemisphere. However, neither Northern Hemisphere nor Southern Hemisphere taxa formed a monophyletic group, which is in conflict with a strictly vicariant scenario. Therefore, the occurrence and importance of long-distance dispersal could not be rejected. Although a pre-Gondwanan origin of Hysterangiales remains as a possibility, this hypothesis requires that Hysterangiales exist prior to the origin of the currently recognized ectomycorrhizal plants, as well as the arrival of mycophagous animals in Australia. This also requires that a basal paraphyletic assemblage represents parallel evolution of the ectomycorrhizal symbiosis, or that Hysterangiales was mycorrhizal with members of the extinct flora of Gondwana. Regardless, models for both ancient and more recent origins of Hysterangiales are consistent with truffle-like fungi being capable of transoceanic dispersal.
Topics: Basidiomycota; DNA, Fungal; DNA, Ribosomal Spacer; Demography; Geography; Phylogeny
PubMed: 18314317
DOI: 10.1016/j.mycres.2007.06.004 -
Microbes and Environments 2021Chionaster nivalis is frequently detected in thawing snowpacks and glaciers. However, the taxonomic position of this species above the genus level remains unclear. We...
Chionaster nivalis is frequently detected in thawing snowpacks and glaciers. However, the taxonomic position of this species above the genus level remains unclear. We herein conducted molecular analyses of C. nivalis using the ribosomal RNA operon sequences obtained from more than 200 cells of this species isolated from a field-collected material. Our molecular phylogenetic analyses revealed that C. nivalis is a sister to Bartheletia paradoxa, which is an orphan basal lineage of Agaricomycotina. We also showed that C. nivalis sequences were contained in several previously examined meta-amplicon sequence datasets from snowpacks and glaciers in the Northern Hemisphere and Antarctica.
Topics: Antarctic Regions; Basidiomycota; Ice Cover; Phylogeny; Snow
PubMed: 34135204
DOI: 10.1264/jsme2.ME21011 -
Mycological Research Mar 1996The shape changes which occur in agaric fruit bodies in response to change in the direction of gravity, usually referred to as gravitropism are morphogenetic changes.... (Review)
Review
The shape changes which occur in agaric fruit bodies in response to change in the direction of gravity, usually referred to as gravitropism are morphogenetic changes. Our interest in what we prefer to call gravimorphogenesis is to use it to examine morphogenesis experimentally. We are examining two agarics, Coprinus cinereus and Flammulina velutipes, and applying the best available technologies, including video analysis, all forms of electron microscopy, computer-aided image analysis and experiments in orbit in Spacelab. Responses to gravity of the two organisms differ in ways which can be related to their ecological and structural adaptations. C. cinereus reacts extremely rapidly; its fruit body can regain the vertical within 3 h of being placed horizontal, whereas F. velutipes requires 12 h to bend through 90 degrees. The fungi also differ in the bulk of tissue involved in the response. In Coprinus, a zone extending several cm down from the apex is normally involved in bending. In Flammulina, gravisensing is limited to a region just a few mm immediately below the cap, although curvature is performed in a zone of up to 2 cm below. Flammulina cultures were flown on the Spacelab D-2 mission in 1993, and fruit body disorientation in orbit provides the first definitive proof that 'gravitropism' really is a response to the unidirectional gravity vector. Experiments with different clinostat rotation rates in Flammulina indicate that the perception threshold is about 10(-4) x g. Analysis of different times of exposure to an altered gravity vector prior to clinorotation in Coprinus reveals that the perception time is 7 minutes and that continued response requires continued exposure. Cell size determinations in Coprinus demonstrate that cells of the stem increase in length, not diameter, to produce the growth differential. In Flammulina a unique population of highly electron-transparent microvacuoles changes in distribution; decreasing in upper cells and increasing in the lower cells in a horizontal fruit body within a few minutes of disorientation. These are thought to contribute to vacuolar expansion which accompanies/drives cell elongation. Application of a variety of metabolic inhibitors indicates that the secondary messenger calcium is also involved in regulating the growth differentials of gravimorphogenesis but that gravity perception is unaffected by inhibitors of calcium signalling. In both Flammulina and Coprinus, gravity perception seems to be dependent on the actin cytoskeleton since cytochalasin treatment suppresses gravitropic curvature in Flammulina and, in Coprinus, significantly delays curvature without affecting stem extension. This, together with altered nuclear motility observed in living hyphae during reorientation suggests that gravity perception involves statoliths (possibly nuclei) acting on the actin cytoskeleton and triggering specific vesicle/microvacuole release from the endomembrane system.
Topics: Basidiomycota; Coprinus; Gravitation; Gravitropism; Gravity Sensing; Plant Stems; Signal Transduction; Space Flight; Weightlessness
PubMed: 11541308
DOI: 10.1016/s0953-7562(96)80152-3 -
Nature Jun 2000
Topics: Agaricales; Basidiomycota; Mosaicism
PubMed: 10896567
DOI: 10.1038/35015659 -
PloS One 2019Taxonomy of Geastrum species in the neotropics has been subject to divergent opinions among specialists. In our study, type collections were reassessed and compared with...
Taxonomy of Geastrum species in the neotropics has been subject to divergent opinions among specialists. In our study, type collections were reassessed and compared with recent collections in order to delimit species in Geastrum, sect. Myceliostroma, subsect. Epigaea. A thorough review of morphologic features combined with barcode and phylogenetic analyses (ITS and LSU nrDNA) revealed six new species (G. neoamericanum, G. rubellum, G. brunneocapillatum, G. baculicrystallum, G. rubropusillum and G. courtecuissei). In additon, the presence of hairs on the exoperidium, a commonly used feature to diagnose Geastrum species, proved to be ineffective because it is a derived character within subsect. Epigaea.
Topics: Americas; Basidiomycota; DNA Barcoding, Taxonomic; DNA, Fungal; Genetic Variation; Phylogeny; Phylogeography; Species Specificity; Tropical Climate
PubMed: 30726262
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0211388