Home • Cyathus striatus AH 40144 v1.0
Cyathus striatus photo by José María Barrasa
Cyathus striatus photo by José María Barrasa

 

Cyathus striatus (Huds.) Willd. is one of the most representative species of Nidulariaceae family that includes the commonly known Bird´s Nest Fungi. According to fungal molecular phylogenies (Matheny et al., 2006), this family is included in the Agaricoid clade within the order Agaricales. All members of the family are characterized by their gasteroid basidiocarps with an obconical peridium containing peridioles (“eggs”) that resembles a nest. C. striatus is easily recognized by the striated internal and hairy external face of its peridium. It is also one of the most beautiful and fascinating members of Nidulariaceae due to its highly developed complex fruiting body and sophisticated reproductive apparatus. It is a saprobic species, widespread in temperate regions throughout the world, that typically fruits scattered or gregariously on twigs, woodchips, old boards and other woody debris of deciduous forests. Although many members of the Nidulariaceae fruit on woody substrates, it is not clear if they can obtain essential nutrients from the wood (Brodie, 1975). However, capability for lignin degradation was reported in C. striatus, together with C. stercoreus and other Cyathus species (Abbott & Wicklow, 1984). Production of laccase and manganese peroxidase and mineralization of synthetic lignin by C. stercoreus were also determined under different culture conditions (Sethuraman et al., 1999). Furthermore, extracellular laccase activity was found during triphenylmethane dyes decolorization by C. bulleriC. stercoreus, and C. striatus (Vasdev et al., 1995). No members of Nidulariaceae have been sequenced before at JGI and C. striatus represents the first fungus of this family proposed for genome sequencing. Sequencing of the C. striatus genome will improve understanding of the enzymatic machinery for lignin degradation within Nidulariaceae, and enable comparison to other white-rot fungi in the search for organisms/enzymes of biotechnological interest.

Genome Reference(s)

 

References

Abbott, T. P. and D.T. Wicklow., 1984. Degradation of lignin by Cyathus species. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 47, 585-587.

Brodie, H., 1975. The Brid´s Nest Fungi. University of Toronto Press. Toronto and Buffalo. Canada.

Matheny, P.B., Curtis, J.M., Hofstetter, V., Aime, M.C., Moncalvo, J.M., Ge, Z.W., Yang, Z.L., Slot, J.C., Ammirati, J.F., Baroni, T.J., Bougher, N.L., Hughes, K.W., Lodge, D.J., Kerrigan, R.W., Seidl, M.T., Aanen, D.K., DeNitis, M., Daniele, G.M., Desjardin, D.E., Kropp, B.R., Norvell, L.L., Parker, A., Vellinga, E.C., Vilgalys, R., Hibbett, D.S., 2006. Major clades of Agaricales: a multilocus phylogenetic overview. Mycologia 98, 982-995.

Sethuraman, A., D.E. Akin and K.-E. L. Eriksson., 1999. Production of ligninolytic enzymes and synthetic lignin mineralization by the bird´s nest fungus Cyathus stercoreus. Appl. Microbiol Biotechnol 52, 689-697.

Vasdev, K., R.C. Kuhad and R. K. Saxena., 1995. Decolorization of Triphenylmethane Dyes by the Bird´s Nest Fungus Cyathus bulleri. Current Microbiology 30, 269-272.