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Carbohydrate Utilization and Metabolism is Highly Differentiated in Agaricus bisporus

Summary

This research investigated how button mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus) break down and use different types of carbohydrates during growth. The study revealed that mushroom mycelium growing in compost can use many different types of sugars, while the actual mushrooms themselves only use simple sugars. This shows sophisticated metabolic adaptation during different growth stages. Impacts on everyday life: – Improved understanding of mushroom cultivation and growth requirements – Potential optimization of commercial mushroom production methods – Better insight into nutrient transport and metabolism in fungi – Applications for improving mushroom crop yields – Implications for developing more efficient composting processes

Background

Agaricus bisporus is commercially grown on compost made from plant-derived polysaccharides containing various monosaccharides. The major constituent monosaccharides are glucose, xylose, and arabinose, with smaller amounts of galactose, glucuronic acid, rhamnose and mannose present. Understanding how A. bisporus metabolizes these different carbon sources during growth and development is important.

Objective

To identify and analyze the expression of genes encoding carbon metabolic enzymes in different growth stages of A. bisporus and correlate this with the composition of carbohydrates and expression of genes encoding plant and fungal polysaccharide modifying enzymes.

Results

The compost-grown vegetative mycelium expressed genes for degrading a wide variety of monosaccharides. In fruiting bodies, only hexose catabolism occurred with no accumulation of other sugars. Genes encoding plant cell wall polysaccharide degrading enzymes were mainly expressed in compost-grown mycelium and largely absent in fruiting bodies. In contrast, genes encoding fungal cell wall polysaccharide modifying enzymes were expressed in both fruiting bodies and vegetative mycelium, but different gene sets were expressed in these samples. Clear correlations were found between gene expression and carbohydrate composition.

Conclusion

The study demonstrated that A. bisporus exhibits highly differentiated carbon metabolism between vegetative and reproductive growth stages. While the vegetative mycelium can metabolize diverse carbon sources from plant material in compost, fruiting bodies appear to be specialized for hexose metabolism. This suggests selective transport of only hexoses or their conversion products from mycelium to fruiting bodies, while other sugars likely provide energy for growth and maintenance of the vegetative mycelium.
  • Published in:BMC Genomics,
  • Study Type:Genomic and Transcriptomic Analysis,
  • Source: 10.1186/1471-2164-14-663
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