Form and function of fungal and oomycete effectors
Publication date: Available online 3 June 2016 Source:Fungal Biology Reviews Author(s): William C. Sharpee, Ralph A. Dean Plants are able to recognize conserved features of potential microbial invaders and mount an active defense in most cases. Over the course of evolution, a number of these microbes including plant pathogenic fungi and oomycetes have evolved means through the secretion of small molecules (effectors) to block these defenses and promote virulence. In recent years, research has uncovered a wealth of knowledge regarding how effectors function within the plant cell to promote disease. Function of effec...
Source: Fungal Biology Reviews - June 2, 2016 Category: Biology Source Type: research
Model fungi: Engines of scientific insight
Publication date: Available online 1 June 2016 Source:Fungal Biology Reviews Author(s): Oded Yarden Fungal models have been used, for nearly a century, to answer fundamental questions relevant to the fungal kingdom and beyond and have also provided major contributions for the success of the general fungal research community. Cadres of scientists that study a model organism develop a strong ethos of sharing, derived from communal efforts which, in turn, also contribute to the education of future researchers. There is an increasing trend in preferred funding of research which is problem-driven in contrast to that which...
Source: Fungal Biology Reviews - May 31, 2016 Category: Biology Source Type: research
Secondary metabolism in Trichoderma – Chemistry meets genomics
The objective of this article is to review the secondary metabolites produced by Trichoderma spp. along with a comprehensive overview of their genomic content for genes and gene clusters being involved in secondary metabolite biosynthesis. We discuss the bioactivity of selected Trichoderma-derived secondary metabolites with a focus on their roles in the interactions of Trichoderma with plants and fungal preys and give an overview on methods for secondary metabolite profiling. (Source: Fungal Biology Reviews)
Source: Fungal Biology Reviews - May 30, 2016 Category: Biology Source Type: research
The importance of subclasses of chitin synthase enzymes with myosin-like domains for the fitness of fungi
Publication date: Available online 26 April 2016 Source:Fungal Biology Reviews Author(s): Chantal Fernandes, Neil A.R. Gow, Teresa Gonçalves Chitin represents one of the most important components of the fungal cell wall. The multiplicity of chitin synthase (Chs) enzymes found in filamentous fungi underlines the importance of chitin in these organisms. Among this group of fungal enzymes, two classes, V and VII, are armed with myosin motors, constituting the MMD-Chs (Myosin Motor Domain – Chitin synthases) that are found in filamentous fungi and are absent in most yeast species. These enzymes play a critical rol...
Source: Fungal Biology Reviews - April 25, 2016 Category: Biology Source Type: research
Inoculating curiosity in fungal biology for a new generation of students
Publication date: Available online 8 April 2016 Source:Fungal Biology Reviews Author(s): Marilee A. Ramesh How can a new faculty member assigned to teach a course in fungal biology go about designing a course that is both informational and relevant to the 21st century undergraduate? Recent calls for science education reform recommend a shift to more active learning pedagogies that encourage students to learn by solving problems or being actively engaged in the process of experimentation as opposed to the traditional lecture reliant on content delivery. While a valid idea, practically, how can such a shift in instruct...
Source: Fungal Biology Reviews - April 7, 2016 Category: Biology Source Type: research
Role of patulin in post-harvest diseases
Publication date: Available online 24 March 2016 Source:Fungal Biology Reviews Author(s): Shiri Barad, Edward Sionov, Dov Prusky Storage of freshly harvested deciduous fruits is a key factor in modulating their supply for several months after harvest. Penicillium expansum is a post-harvest pathogen that colonises these fruit during storage, having penetrated the fruit through wounds incurred at harvest. The fungus macerates the host tissue during the long periods of storage and simultaneously accumulates significant amounts of the mycotoxin patulin. Fungal decay is a concern for both retailers and consumers, due ...
Source: Fungal Biology Reviews - March 25, 2016 Category: Biology Source Type: research
From two to many: Multiple mating types in Basidiomycetes
Publication date: Available online 10 December 2015 Source:Fungal Biology Reviews Author(s): Ursula Kües Fungi do not have different sexes characterized by specific morphological organs but control sexual development by physiological differences defined by mating types. While other lineages in the fungal kingdom have only two distinct mating types, multiple mating types are common in the Basidiomycetes, presumably for outcomes related to enhanced outbreeding. Mating types in Basidiomycetes are determined by genes that encode two types of homeodomain transcription factors (HD genes) and by genes that encode lipopepti...
Source: Fungal Biology Reviews - December 11, 2015 Category: Biology Source Type: research
Evolution of sexual reproduction: A view from the fungal kingdom supports an evolutionary epoch with sex before sexes
Publication date: Available online 21 October 2015 Source:Fungal Biology Reviews Author(s): Joseph Heitman Sexual reproduction is conserved throughout each supergroup within the eukaryotic tree of life, and therefore thought to have evolved once and to have been present in the last eukaryotic common ancestor (LECA). Given the antiquity of sex, there are features of sexual reproduction that are ancient and ancestral, and thus shared in diverse extant organisms. On the other hand, the vast evolutionary distance that separates any given extant species from the LECA necessarily implies that other features of sex will be ...
Source: Fungal Biology Reviews - December 4, 2015 Category: Biology Source Type: research
In memory of Lorna Ann Casselton, CBE, MA, PhD, DSc, MAE, FRS
Publication date: Available online 11 November 2015 Source:Fungal Biology Reviews Author(s): Ursula Kües (Source: Fungal Biology Reviews)
Source: Fungal Biology Reviews - December 4, 2015 Category: Biology Source Type: research
Why mushrooms have evolved to be so promiscuous: Insights from evolutionary and ecological patterns
Publication date: Available online 17 November 2015 Source:Fungal Biology Reviews Author(s): Timothy Y. James Agaricomycetes, the mushrooms, are considered to have a promiscuous mating system, because most populations have a large number of mating types. This diversity of mating types ensures a high outcrossing efficiency, the probability of encountering a compatible mate when mating at random, because nearly every homokaryotic genotype is compatible with every other. Here I summarize the data from mating type surveys and genetic analysis of mating type loci and ask what evolutionary and ecological factors have promo...
Source: Fungal Biology Reviews - December 4, 2015 Category: Biology Source Type: research
From dikaryon to diploid
Publication date: Available online 2 October 2015 Source:Fungal Biology Reviews Author(s): Flora Banuett The dikaryon is the persistent vegetative phase of most basidiomycetes and arises by cell fusion of two haploids carrying different mating type alleles. The diplophase is restricted to a single cell (the basidium) where meiosis takes place. Cell fusion and karyogamy are thus temporally and spatially separated. The dikaryon is characterized by the presence in each cell of two genetically distinct nuclei in a 1:1 ratio and by clamp connections, structures involved in partitioning of the nuclei during their synchrono...
Source: Fungal Biology Reviews - October 4, 2015 Category: Biology Source Type: research
Contrasted patterns in mating-type chromosomes in fungi: Hotspots versus coldspots of recombination
Publication date: Available online 27 July 2015 Source:Fungal Biology Reviews Author(s): Alexander Idnurm, Michael E. Hood, Hanna Johannesson, Tatiana Giraud It is striking that, while central to sexual reproduction, the genomic regions determining sex or mating-types are often characterized by suppressed recombination that leads to a decrease in the efficiency of selection, shelters genetic load, and inevitably contributes to their genic degeneration. Research on model and lesser-explored fungi has revealed similarities in recombination suppression of the genomic regions involved in mating compatibility across...
Source: Fungal Biology Reviews - July 27, 2015 Category: Biology Source Type: research
From two to one: Unipolar sexual reproduction
Publication date: Available online 10 July 2015 Source:Fungal Biology Reviews Author(s): Sheng Sun , Joseph Heitman While sexual reproduction is universal in eukaryotes, and shares conserved core features, the specific aspects of sexual reproduction can differ dramatically from species to species. This is also true in Fungi. Among fungal species, mating determination can vary from tetrapolar with more than a thousand different mating types, to bipolar with only two opposite mating types, and finally to unipolar without the need of a compatible mating partner for sexual reproduction. Cryptococcus neoformans is a human...
Source: Fungal Biology Reviews - July 11, 2015 Category: Biology Source Type: research
How do Agaricomycetes shape their fruiting bodies? 1. Morphological aspects of development
Publication date: Available online 2 July 2015 Source:Fungal Biology Reviews Author(s): Ursula Kües , Mónica Navarro-González Fruiting body formation in Agaricomycetes (Agaricomycotina) represents the most complex developmental processes known in the fungal kingdom. Shapes range from simple resupinate forms with open hymenia through to closed puff-balls and false truffles with internally hidden hymenia and include brackets and stiped mushrooms, which may have open caps throughout or which open during development, where the hymenia cover the surfaces of gills or pores. Mushroom shapes and features do not necessaril...
Source: Fungal Biology Reviews - July 7, 2015 Category: Biology Source Type: research
Endocytosis and exocytosis in hyphal growth
Publication date: Available online 6 June 2015 Source:Fungal Biology Reviews Author(s): Zachary S. Schultzhaus , Brian D. Shaw Two ancient processes, endocytosis and exocytosis, are employed by eukaryotic cells to shape their plasma membrane and interact with their environment. Filamentous fungi have adapted them to roles compatible with their unique ecological niche and morphology. These organisms are optimal systems in which to address questions such as how endocytosis is localized, how endocytosis and exocytosis interact, and how large molecules traverse eukaryotic cell walls. In the tips of filamentous (hyphal) c...
Source: Fungal Biology Reviews - June 7, 2015 Category: Biology Source Type: research
