Spinellus fusiger CBS 515.75 (= NRRL 22323) was originally isolated parasitizing the mushroom Mycena galericulata in Putten, the Netherlands. The six species within this zygomycetous genus (http://www.mycobank.org/) are all thought to be facultative parasites of mushrooms (Fig. 1, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinellus_fusiger). Members of this psychrotolerant genus grow well at 15◦C and they are currently classified in the monophyletic family Phycomycetaceae within the Mucorales (O’Donnell et al. 2000; Walters et al. 2013). During the asexual reproductive phase, S. fusiger produces multispored sporangia on unbranched sporangiophores that can reach several centimeters in length (Figs. 1-2). At maturity, the sporangial wall breaks down allowing the fusiform sporangiospores to be passively dispersed (Fig. 3). Spinellus fusiger is self-fertile or homothallic and the sexual reproductive phase of its life cycle is characterized by the formation of ornamented zygospores between opposed suspensors. The whole-genome sequence of S. fusiger supports the 1000 Fungal Genome Project, which is focused on elucidating the evolution of early diverging fungal lineages.
References:
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Genome Reference(s)
Wang Y, Chang Y, Ortañez J, Peña JF, Carter-House D, Reynolds NK, Smith ME, Benny G, Mondo SJ, Salamov A, Lipzen A, Pangilinan J, Guo J, LaButti K, Andreopolous W, Tritt A, Keymanesh K, Yan M, Barry K, Grigoriev IV, Spatafora JW, Stajich JE
Divergent evolution of early terrestrial fungi reveals the evolution of Mucormycosis pathogenicity factors.
Genome Biol Evol. 2023 Mar 17;():. doi: 10.1093/gbe/evad046