Porodaedalea niemelaei is a member of Hymenochaetaceae family from the order Hymenochaetales, and was sequenced as part of the 1000 Fungal Genomes Project. The 1000 Fungal Genomes Project aims fill in gaps in the Fungal Tree of Life by sequencing at least two reference genomes from the more than 500 recognized families of Fungi. This project additionally aims to inform research on plant-microbe interactions, microbial emission and capture of greenhouse gasses, and environmental metagenomic sequencing.
Biological and practical importance: Porodaedalea niemelaei M. Fischer aka Phellinus niemelaei M. Fischer (Zmitr., V. Malysheva et Spirin) belongs to the Hymenochaetaceae family, division Basidiomycota, subdivision or class Agaricomycetes (taxonomic classification: Fungi, Dikarya, Basidiomycota, Agaricomycotina, Agaricomycetes, Hymenochaetales, Hymenochaetaceae, Porodaedalea). Like many species from this family, P. niemelaei is a phytopathogen that causes white rot in conifers, especially in larch (Larix sp.), the major boreal forest species.
Porodaedalea niemelaei is the only Porodaedalea fungus that occurs above the arctic polar circle and was found recently in the Northernmost larch forest in the Taymir region of northern Siberia near Khatanga, Krasnoyarsk Region, Russia (71° 41.97' N 100° 34.54' Е). It plays very important biological and ecological role in maintaining mineral balance in the boreal forest ecosystems and their sustainable functioning via regulating the age structure of forest tree populations. It plays also very important role in the global carbon cycle. These roles may increase due to the global climate change. It decomposes wood, lignin and cellulose into simpler compounds that can be used in the cellulose based ethanol production. It has a unique ability to efficiently decompose wood even at relatively low temperatures. It is adapted to very harsh climatic conditions and may have unique enzymes and metabolic pathways involved in the wood decomposition. Recent experiments with culturing Porodaedalea niemelaei in lignin enriched media demonstrated that this fungus decomposes lignin very efficiently even incultures (Pavlov, Krutovsky et al., unpublished).
The fungal and plant genome research communities will greatly benefit from having the Porodaedalea niemelaei genome and transcriptome sequenced, assembled, and fully annotated. It will allow carrying our comparative genomic and transcriptomic studies and search for new important genes and metabolic pathways involved in the wood and lignin decomposition.