Home • Coprinopsis marcescibilis CBS121175 v1.0
Photo: Laszlo Nagy
Photo: Laszlo Nagy

Coprinopsis marcescibilis

 

The genome of C. marcescibilis has been sequenced under the auspices of the 1000 Fungal Genomes Project. C. marcescibilis belongs to the Psathyrellaceae (Agaricales), an agaric family with small to medium-sized mushrooms and a dark spore print. It contains the widely used model fungus Coprinopsis cinerea as well as other, lesser known model species such as Coprinopsis radiata, Coprinellus congregatus or Coprinellus domesticus

Coprinopsis belongs to the former Coprinus sensu lato genus, a group known for its autodigesting fruiting bodies, commonly named "inky caps". They use chitinases and glucanases to digest maturing cap tissues into a black liquid to facilitate spore dispersal. Interestingly, inky caps have been switching frequently back and forth between autodigesting and non-autodigesting fruiting bodies in the last 100 million years. The high frequency of these transitions suggests a developmental program that can be easily rewired to quickly respond to changing environmental challenges - a hypothesis that will be tested using the genome of C marcescibilis

Species of the Psathyrellaceae play important roles in terrestrial ecosystems as litter decomposers; they degrade non-woody organic materials and thus contribute greatly to global carbon-cycling. They are often the first basidiomycete colonizers of such niches. Together with Coprinellus micaceus and Coprinopsis cinerea, genome of Coprinopsis marcescibilis will form an exceptional resource to explore the stereotypical litter­ decomposer genomic toolkit.

 

 

References

 

Nagy LG, Házi J, Szappanos B, Kocsubé S, Bálint B, Rákhely G, Vágvölgyi C, Papp T. The evolution of defense mechanisms correlate with the explosive diversification of autodigesting Coprinellus mushrooms (Agaricales, Fungi). Syst Biol. 2012 Jul;61(4):595­-607.

 

Nagy LG, Walther G, Házi J, Vágvölgyi C, Papp T. Understanding the evolutionary processes of fungal fruiting bodies: correlated evolution and divergence times in the Psathyrellaceae. Syst Biol. 2011 May;60(3):303­17. 

 

Nagy LG, Urban A, Orstadius L, Papp T, Larsson E, Vágvölgyi C. The evolution of autodigestion in the mushroom family Psathyrellaceae (Agaricales) inferred from Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian methods. Mol Phylogenet Evol. 2010 Dec;57(3):1037­-48.

Genome Reference(s)