Functional Genomics and Bioinformatics Group, Research Center for Forestry and Wood Industry, University of Sopron, Sopron, 9400, Hungary.
Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Birmensdorf, 8903, Switzerland.
Nat Ecol Evol. 2017 Dec;1(12):1931-1941. doi: 10.1038/s41559-017-0347-8. Epub 2017 Oct 30.
Armillaria species are both devastating forest pathogens and some of the largest terrestrial organisms on Earth. They forage for hosts and achieve immense colony sizes via rhizomorphs, root-like multicellular structures of clonal dispersal. Here, we sequenced and analysed the genomes of four Armillaria species and performed RNA sequencing and quantitative proteomic analysis on the invasive and reproductive developmental stages of A. ostoyae. Comparison with 22 related fungi revealed a significant genome expansion in Armillaria, affecting several pathogenicity-related genes, lignocellulose-degrading enzymes and lineage-specific genes expressed during rhizomorph development. Rhizomorphs express an evolutionarily young transcriptome that shares features with the transcriptomes of both fruiting bodies and vegetative mycelia. Several genes show concomitant upregulation in rhizomorphs and fruiting bodies and share cis-regulatory signatures in their promoters, providing genetic and regulatory insights into complex multicellularity in fungi. Our results suggest that the evolution of the unique dispersal and pathogenicity mechanisms of Armillaria might have drawn upon ancestral genetic toolkits for wood-decay, morphogenesis and complex multicellularity.
蜜环菌是一种极具破坏性的森林病原体，也是地球上最大的陆地生物之一。它们通过根状菌索（与根相似的克隆扩散的多细胞结构）寻找宿主并实现巨大的菌落大小。在这里，我们对四种蜜环菌物种进行了测序和分析，并对入侵和生殖发育阶段的 A. ostoyae 进行了 RNA 测序和定量蛋白质组学分析。与 22 种相关真菌的比较显示，蜜环菌的基因组显著扩张，影响了几个与致病性相关的基因、木质纤维素降解酶和在根状菌索发育过程中表达的谱系特异性基因。根状菌索表达了一个具有进化年轻特征的转录组，与子实体和营养菌丝的转录组有相似之处。几个基因在根状菌索和子实体中同时上调，并在启动子中共享顺式调控特征，为真菌的复杂多细胞性提供了遗传和调控方面的见解。我们的结果表明，蜜环菌独特的传播和致病性机制的进化可能利用了木材降解、形态发生和复杂多细胞性的祖先遗传工具包。
