The genome of Auriculariopsis ampla has been sequenced as part of the 1000 Fungal Genomes Project which aims to expand our knowledge on functional and phylogenetic diversity of fungi. A. ampla is a mushroom-forming fungus in the Schizophyllaceae family with its closest relative being widely researched model organism of the Agaricales order, Schizophyllum commune. As a result some authors used to place both species in the Schizophyllum genus. The two species share numerous morphological features, for example they both form pileate to cupulate basidiomata with white pileus and unattached margins (K. K. Nakasone, 1996). Hymenial development in the two species is similar until the point of split gill formation which A. ampla lacks (Stalpers, 1988), it produces morphologically much simpler, so-called "cyphelloid” fruiting-bodies. It is the result of evolutionary simplification, having been derived from anatomically larger and more complex ancestors. This process took place multiple times in several lineages during evolution making fungi with cyphelloid morphology a polyphyletic group (Bodensteiner et al, 2004). Investigating the emergence of such reduced morphology will help us understand mushroom development from a whole new point of view.
A. ampla is distributed all over the northern hemisphere, although it is more wide-spread in Europe compared to North America. Most often A. ampla grows on dead corticate branches of Populus species. Although the wood decay mechanism of A. ampla has not yet been fully understood, it can help us understand the nutritional strategy of the Schizophyllaceae, including Schizophyllum commune, a species that causes white-rot like symptoms but lacks hallmark gene families of white rot fungi (e.g. Class-II peroxidases). Comparative genomic analyses can now shed light on the wood decay mechanisms of both species.
References
K. K. Nakasone: Morphological and molecular studies on Auriculariopsis albomellea and Phlebia albida and a reassessment of A. ampla, Mycologia, 88(5) (1996) pp. 762-775.
J. A. Stalpers: Auriculariopsis and the Schizophyllales, Persoonia 13 (1988) 495-504.
Bodensteiner P, Binder M, Moncalvo JM, Agerer R, S Hibbett D. Phylogenetic relationships of cyphelloid homobasidiomycetes. Mol Phylogenet Evol. 2004 33:501-15.
Genome Reference(s)
Almási É, Sahu N, Krizsán K, Bálint B, Kovács GM, Kiss B, Cseklye J, Drula E, Henrissat B, Nagy I, Chovatia M, Adam C, LaButti K, Lipzen A, Riley R, Grigoriev IV, Nagy LG
Comparative genomics reveals unique wood-decay strategies and fruiting body development in the Schizophyllaceae.
New Phytol. 2019 Oct;224(2):902-915. doi: 10.1111/nph.16032