The regulation of methyl jasmonate on hyphal branching and GA biosynthesis in Ganoderma lucidum partly via ROS generated by NADPH oxidase.

Ganoderma lucidum is one of the best known medicinal basidiomycetes because it produces many pharmacologically active compounds, and methyl jasmonate (MeJA) was previously reported to induce the biosynthesis of ganoderic acids (GA) in G. lucidum. In this study, we found that MeJA not only increased the amount of GA but also increased the distance between hyphal branches by approximately 1.2-fold. Further analysis showed that MeJA could increase the intracellular ROS (reactive oxygen species) content by approximately 2.2-2.7-fold. Furthermore, the hyphal branching and GA biosynthesis regulated by MeJA treatment could be abolished by ROS scavengers to a level similar to or lower than that of the control group. These results indicated that the regulation of hyphal branching and GA biosynthesis by MeJA might occur via a ROS signaling pathway. Further analysis revealed that NADPH oxidase (NOX) plays an important role in MeJA-regulated ROS generation. Importantly, our results highlight that NOX functions in signaling cross-talk between ROS and MeJA. In addition, these findings provide an excellent opportunity to identify potential pathways linking ROS networks to MeJA signaling in fungi and suggest that plants and fungi share a conserved signaling-crosstalk mechanism.