Home • Linnemannia elongata AD073 v1.0
Linnemannia elongata AD073 with endosymbionts (WT) on the left, displaying rosette growth pattern, and cured on the right, showing a smooth growth pattern. Image by Julian Liber.
Linnemannia elongata AD073 with endosymbionts (WT) on the left, displaying rosette growth pattern, and cured on the right, showing a smooth growth pattern. Image by Julian Liber.

Within the framework of the ‘Comparative genomics of early diverging terrestrial fungi and their bacterial endosymbionts’ CSP project, we are exploring interactions and evolutionary histories of early diverging lineages of terrestrial fungi and their endobacteria (Uehling et al. 2017). Towards this goal, we are sequencing metagenomes and metatranscriptomes of a diverse panel of fungi in Mucoromycota that host endohyphal bacteria.

Linnemannia is a genus of fungi within Mucoromycota, formerly classified as Mortierella and belonging to the zygomycetes (Vandepol et al. 2020). Mortierella are distributed globally and are frequently isolated and detected in soils and plant rhizospheres. Many species grow rapidly, in part owing to their coenocytic mycelium that has occasional septa and frequent anastomosis. Linnemannia are considered to be haploid and heterothallic, although some isolates have been reported to be homothallic (Gams, Chien, and Domsch 1972).

Linnemannia elongata is a common and ubiquitous species. It has been isolated from alpine ecosystems of Norway (4 km above sea level), arid agricultural areas of India and deserts, and coastal regions of Mexico. Linnemannia elongata grows well in a range of soil types, from pH levels of 4 to 7, and shows preference for litter and upper organic soil horizons. Its ecological function remains to be elucidated. This isolate (AD073) contains a Mycoplasma-related endobacterium.

References:

Desirò, Alessandro, Zhen Hao, Julian A. Liber, Gian Maria Niccolò Benucci, David Lowry, Robert Roberson, and Gregory Bonito. 2018. “Mycoplasma-Related Endobacteria within Mortierellomycotina Fungi: Diversity, Distribution and Functional Insights into Their Lifestyle.” The ISME Journal. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-018-0053-9.

Gams, W., Chiu-Yuan Chien, and K. H. Domsch. 1972. “Zygospore Formation by the Heterothallic Mortierella elongata and a Related Homothallic Species, M. epigama sp.nov.” Transactions of the British Mycological Society 58 (1): 5–IN2.

Uehling, J., A. Gryganskyi, K. Hameed, T. Tschaplinski, P. K. Misztal, S. Wu, Desirò A, et al. 2017. “Comparative Genomics of Mortierella elongata and Its Bacterial Endosymbiont Mycoavidus cysteinexigens.” Environmental Microbiology.

Vandepol, Natalie, Julian Liber, Alessandro Desirò, Hyunsoo Na, Megan Kennedy, Kerrie Barry, Igor V. Grigoriev, et al. 2020. “Resolving the Mortierellaceae Phylogeny through Synthesis of Multi-Gene Phylogenetics and Phylogenomics.” Fungal Diversity, 1–23.