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.
Mortierella is a large genus of fungi within
Mucoromycota, formally classified as zygomycetes. These fungi are
industrially important given their unique fatty acid and lipid
metabolism, which is of interest for biofuel production.
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. Mortierella are
considered to be haploid and heterothallic, although some isolates
have been reported to be homothallic (Gams et al. 1972).
The species sequenced here, Mortierella sp. nov. (isolate
GBAus27b) was isolated from soil collected from a long-term
research plot in Western Australia. This species grows particularly
rapidly, but does not produce the typical rosette colony morphology
that is characteristic of most Mortierella species. It
does produce profuse abundant aerial hypha, however (Figure 1).
Microscopically, this species produces distinctive multi-lobate
structures (Figure 2).
References:
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, Gryganskyi A, Hameed K, Tschaplinski T, Misztal PK, Wu
S, Desirò A, Vande Pol N, Du Z, Zienkiewicz A, Zienkiewicz
K, Morin E, Tisserant E, Splivallo R, Hainaut M, Henrissat B, Ohm
R, Kuo A, Yan J, Lipzen A, Nolan M, LaButti K, Barry K, Goldstein
A, Labbé J, Schadt C, Tuskan G, Grigoriev I, Martin F,
Vilgalys R, Bonito G. 2017. Comparative genomics of
Mortierella elongata and its bacterial
endosymbiont Mycoavidus cysteinexigens. Environmental
Microbiology. DOI: 10.1111/1462-2920.13669
Genome Reference(s)
Chang Y, Wang Y, Mondo S, Ahrendt S, Andreopoulos W, Barry K, Beard J, Benny GL, Blankenship S, Bonito G, Cuomo C, Desiro A, Gervers KA, Hundley H, Kuo A, LaButti K, Lang BF, Lipzen A, O'Donnell K, Pangilinan J, Reynolds N, Sandor L, Smith ME, Tsang A, Grigoriev IV, Stajich JE, Spatafora JW
Evolution of zygomycete secretomes and the origins of terrestrial fungal ecologies.
iScience. 2022 Aug 19;25(8):104840. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.104840