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5′-SAGE Studies Reveal a Transcriptomic Switch During Fruiting Body Development in Coprinopsis cinerea

Summary

This research examined how genes are turned on and off when mushrooms begin to form from fungal threads. The scientists studied the model mushroom species Coprinopsis cinerea to understand the complex process of mushroom development. They found that about one-third of genes change their activity levels during early mushroom formation, revealing a major shift in cellular processes. The findings help explain how mushrooms develop and could be useful for mushroom cultivation. Impacts on everyday life: • Could lead to improved commercial mushroom production methods • May help develop better ways to grow medicinal mushrooms • Provides insights that could enhance mushroom crop yields • Could aid in developing new strains of edible mushrooms • May contribute to more efficient and sustainable mushroom farming practices

Background

The transition from vegetative mycelium to primordium during fruiting body development is the most complex and critical developmental event in the life cycle of many basidiomycete fungi. Understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying this process has long been a goal of research on basidiomycetes. Large scale assessment of expressed transcriptomes during these developmental stages is needed to better understand the mushroom fruiting process.

Objective

To analyze the transcriptomes and identify up-regulated genes between vegetative mycelium (Myc) and stage 1 primordium (S1-Pri) of Coprinopsis cinerea during fruiting body development using 5′-Serial Analysis of Gene Expression (5′-SAGE) coupled with high-throughput pyrosequencing.

Results

The study evaluated expression of over 3,000 genes and found that almost one-third were preferentially expressed in either stage, indicating a significant transcriptome turnover during fruiting body development. Over 79,000 transcription start sites were annotated. GO and KEGG analyses showed various structural and functional protein families were uniquely employed in either stage, with cellular metabolism highly up-regulated during primordial growth. Several signaling pathways including cAMP-PKA, MAPK and TOR pathways were identified as up-regulated. More than 100 up-regulated genes were found to be unique to mushroom-forming basidiomycetes.

Conclusion

The study revealed a wealth of new candidate genes important to early stages of mushroom fruiting development, though their precise molecular functions and biological roles are not yet fully known. The findings advance understanding of molecular mechanisms of fruiting body development in the model mushroom C. cinerea and may be applicable to other basidiomycetes that form fruiting bodies.
  • Published in:BMC Genomics,
  • Study Type:Transcriptomic Analysis,
  • Source: 10.1186/1471-2164-14-195
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