Sex in the Mucoralean Fungi

Lee, Soo Chan; Heitman, Joseph

doi:10.1111/myc.12244

Cited by 21 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…All of the Rhizopus genomes we examined contain a clear sex gene cluster ( Idnurm et al 2008 , Gryganskyi et al 2010 , Lee and Heitman 2014 ). The structure of the sex locus and the relationship of the surrounding genes are not fully understood in Mucorales, especially with the increasing number of Mucorales genome sequences becoming available.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phylogenetic and Phylogenomic Definition of Rhizopus Species

Gryganskyi

Golan

Dolatabadi

et al. 2018

G3 Genes|Genomes|Genetics

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Phylogenomic approaches have the potential to improve confidence about the inter-relationships of species in the order Mucorales within the fungal tree of life. Rhizopus species are especially important as plant and animal pathogens and bioindustrial fermenters for food and metabolite production. A dataset of 192 orthologous genes was used to construct a phylogenetic tree of 21 Rhizopus strains, classified into four species isolated from habitats of industrial, medical and environmental importance. The phylogeny indicates that the genus Rhizopus consists of three major clades, with R. microsporus as the basal species and the sister lineage to R. stolonifer and two closely related species R. arrhizus and R. delemar. A comparative analysis of the mating type locus across Rhizopus reveals that its structure is flexible even between different species in the same genus, but shows similarities between Rhizopus and other mucoralean fungi. The topology of single-gene phylogenies built for two genes involved in mating is similar to the phylogenomic tree. Comparison of the total length of the genome assemblies showed that genome size varies by as much as threefold within a species and is driven by changes in transposable element copy numbers and genome duplications.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phylogenetic and Phylogenomic Definition of Rhizopus Species

Gryganskyi

Golan

Dolatabadi

et al. 2018

G3 Genes|Genomes|Genetics

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“…In all of these fungi the gene is located in close proximity to the sex determining genes sexM and sexP and is the first gene in the 3’ flanking region of the sex locus. In some Mucor sub-species the promoter of the rnhA gene lies within the sex specific region of the genome (Fig 4B, [22]). rnhA gene expression is elevated during mating conditions, for example, during co-culture of (+) and (-) mating type cells or during vegetative growth of either mating type cell when supplemented with the sex pheromone trisporic acid (S5 Fig).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Provided by Wiley Schell from Duke University [25]. 1006PhL was collected from human skin in the USA and provided by Julie Segre at NIH [22]. Competent cells of E .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A non-canonical RNA degradation pathway suppresses RNAi-dependent epimutations in the human fungal pathogen Mucor circinelloides

et al. 2017

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Mucorales are a group of basal fungi that includes the casual agents of the human emerging disease mucormycosis. Recent studies revealed that these pathogens activate an RNAi-based pathway to rapidly generate drug-resistant epimutant strains when exposed to stressful compounds such as the antifungal drug FK506. To elucidate the molecular mechanism of this epimutation pathway, we performed a genetic analysis in Mucor circinelloides that revealed an inhibitory role for the non-canonical RdRP-dependent Dicer-independent silencing pathway, which is an RNAi-based mechanism involved in mRNA degradation that was recently identified. Thus, mutations that specifically block the mRNA degradation pathway, such as those in the genes r3b2 and rdrp3, enhance the production of drug resistant epimutants, similar to the phenotype previously described for mutation of the gene rdrp1. Our genetic analysis also revealed two new specific components of the epimutation pathway related to the quelling induced protein (qip) and a Sad-3-like helicase (rnhA), as mutations in these genes prevented formation of drug-resistant epimutants. Remarkably, drug-resistant epimutant production was notably increased in M. circinelloides f. circinelloides isolates from humans or other animal hosts. The host-pathogen interaction could be a stressful environment in which the phenotypic plasticity provided by the epimutant pathway might provide an advantage for these strains. These results evoke a model whereby balanced regulation of two different RNAi pathways is determined by the activation of the RNAi-dependent epimutant pathway under stress conditions, or its repression when the regular maintenance of the mRNA degradation pathway operates under non-stress conditions.

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“…Hyphal fusion is essential for fungal sex (Ni et al ., ; Teixeira et al ., ). In zygomycetous fungi, this fusion generates meiotically reduced zygospores, with the two original hyphae acting as de facto gametes (Benny et al ., ; Lee & Heitman, ; Lee & Idnurm, ). In Dikarya, fusion establishes dikaryotic hyphae that later will initiate meiotic recombination (Lee et al ., ; Ni et al ., ; Heitman, Sun & James, ).…”

Section: Cellular Complexitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Fungal evolution: cellular, genomic and metabolic complexity

Naranjo‐Ortiz

Gabaldón

2020

Biological Reviews

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The question of how phenotypic and genomic complexity are inter‐related and how they are shaped through evolution is a central question in biology that historically has been approached from the perspective of animals and plants. In recent years, however, fungi have emerged as a promising alternative system to address such questions. Key to their ecological success, fungi present a broad and diverse range of phenotypic traits. Fungal cells can adopt many different shapes, often within a single species, providing them with great adaptive potential. Fungal cellular organizations span from unicellular forms to complex, macroscopic multicellularity, with multiple transitions to higher or lower levels of cellular complexity occurring throughout the evolutionary history of fungi. Similarly, fungal genomes are very diverse in their architecture. Deep changes in genome organization can occur very quickly, and these phenomena are known to mediate rapid adaptations to environmental changes. Finally, the biochemical complexity of fungi is huge, particularly with regard to their secondary metabolites, chemical products that mediate many aspects of fungal biology, including ecological interactions. Herein, we explore how the interplay of these cellular, genomic and metabolic traits mediates the emergence of complex phenotypes, and how this complexity is shaped throughout the evolutionary history of Fungi.

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Sex in the Mucoralean Fungi

Cited by 21 publications

References 37 publications

Phylogenetic and Phylogenomic Definition of Rhizopus Species

Phylogenetic and Phylogenomic Definition of Rhizopus Species

A non-canonical RNA degradation pathway suppresses RNAi-dependent epimutations in the human fungal pathogen Mucor circinelloides

Fungal evolution: cellular, genomic and metabolic complexity

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