Home • Rickenella fibula HBK330-10 v1.0

 

Photo of Rickenella fibula HBK330-10 v1.0
Photo by Ko-Hsuan Chen
Photo of Rickenella fibula HBK330-10 v1.0
Photo by Ko-Hsuan Chen
Photo of Rickenella fibula HBK330-10 v1.0
Photo by Christine Braaten

Rickenella fibula is a small, buff-yellow to ochre colored mushroom-forming fungus in the Hymenochaetales. The order is characterized by a number of different fruit body morphologies that include potentially up to four independent lineages of mushroom-forming fungi. Rickenella fibula is a minority within the order, as it is one of only a handful of agarics and is also commonly associated with many bryophyte species, where it fruits on senescing portions of bryophyte gametophytes. Most identified fungal-bryophyte associations appear within the Ascomycota, making R. fibula one of the few known bryophilous-basidiomycete relationships. The nature of the relationship with R. fibula’s bryophyte associates is unknown but has previously been hypothesized to be saprotrophic, symbiotic, and parasitic. However, no studies have been able to report definitive results. Rickenella fibula will not only be the first full genome from its genus, but will be the first agaric from the Hymenochaetales. Furthermore, analyses of R. fibula’s metatranscriptomes have revealed that it is active throughout photosynthetic and senescent bryophyte tissues, but up to this point, analyses have been limited at the rRNA level due to a lack of a genome. The genome and transcriptome of R. fibula will allow us to track the functional switches in the system and determine the trophic status, thus revealing its relationship with the bryophyte host.

Genome Reference(s)