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Wang S, Ma T, Xia X, Zhang L. Evolutionary insights and functional diversity of gasdermin family proteins and homologs in microorganisms. Front Immunol 2024; 15:1371611. [PMID: 38571940 PMCID: PMC10989679 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1371611] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/16/2024] [Accepted: 03/07/2024] [Indexed: 04/05/2024] Open
Abstract
The gasdermin protein family and its homologs in microorganisms have gained significant attention due to their roles in programmed cell death, immune defense, and microbial infection. This review summarizes the current research status of gasdermin proteins, their structural features, and functional roles in fungi, bacteria, and viruses. The review presents evolutionary parallels between mammalian and microbial defense systems, highlighting the conserved role of gasdermin proteins in regulating cell death processes and immunity. Additionally, the structural and functional characteristics of gasdermin homologs in microorganisms are summarized, shedding light on their potential as targets for therapeutic interventions. Future research directions in this field are also discussed to provide a roadmap for further investigation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shule Wang
- Department of Clinical Laboratory Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Shandong First Medical University & Shandong Provincial Qianfoshan Hospital, Jinan, Shandong, China
- School of Clinical Medicine, Shandong Second Medical University, Weifang, Shandong, China
| | - Tingbo Ma
- Department of Clinical Laboratory Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Shandong First Medical University & Shandong Provincial Qianfoshan Hospital, Jinan, Shandong, China
- School of Clinical Medicine, Shandong Second Medical University, Weifang, Shandong, China
| | - Xiaoyi Xia
- Department of Pathogen Biology, School of Clinical and Basic Medical Sciences, Shandong First Medical University & Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, Jinan, Shandong, China
| | - Leiliang Zhang
- Department of Clinical Laboratory Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Shandong First Medical University & Shandong Provincial Qianfoshan Hospital, Jinan, Shandong, China
- Department of Pathogen Biology, School of Clinical and Basic Medical Sciences, Shandong First Medical University & Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, Jinan, Shandong, China
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Cabrera IE, Oza Y, Carrillo AJ, Collier LA, Wright SJ, Li L, Borkovich KA. Regulator of G Protein Signaling Proteins Control Growth, Development and Cellulase Production in Neurospora crassa. J Fungi (Basel) 2022; 8:jof8101076. [PMID: 36294641 PMCID: PMC9604755 DOI: 10.3390/jof8101076] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2022] [Revised: 10/05/2022] [Accepted: 10/11/2022] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Heterotrimeric (αβγ) G protein signaling pathways are critical environmental sensing systems found in eukaryotic cells. Exchange of GDP for GTP on the Gα subunit leads to its activation. In contrast, GTP hydrolysis on the Gα is accelerated by Regulator of G protein Signaling (RGS) proteins, resulting in a return to the GDP-bound, inactive state. Here, we analyzed growth, development and extracellular cellulase production in strains with knockout mutations in the seven identified RGS genes (rgs-1 to rgs-7) in the filamentous fungus, Neurospora crassa. We compared phenotypes to those of strains with either knockout mutations or expressing predicted constitutively activated, GTPase-deficient alleles for each of the three Gα subunit genes (gna-1Q204L, gna-2Q205L or gna-3Q208L). Our data revealed that six RGS mutants have taller aerial hyphae than wild type and all seven mutants exhibit reduced asexual sporulation, phenotypes shared with strains expressing the gna-1Q204L or gna-3Q208L allele. In contrast, Δrgs-1 and Δrgs-3 were the only RGS mutants with a slower growth rate phenotype, a defect in common with gna-1Q204L strains. With respect to female sexual development, Δrgs-1 possessed defects most similar to gna-3Q208L strains, while those of Δrgs-2 mutants resembled strains expressing the gna-1Q204L allele. Finally, we observed that four of the seven RGS mutants had significantly different extracellular cellulase levels relative to wild type. Of interest, the Δrgs-2 mutant had no detectable activity, similar to the gna-3Q208L strain. In contrast, the Δrgs-1 and Δrgs-4 mutants and gna-1Q204L and gna-2Q205L strains exhibited significantly higher cellulase activity than wild type. With the exception of sexual development, our results demonstrate the greatest number of genetic interactions between rgs-1 and gna-1 and rgs-2 and gna-3 in N. crassa.
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Sun H, Ren Y, Tao Y, Jiang T, Jiang H. Flexible online in-droplet cell/synthetic particle concentration utilizing alternating current electrothermal-flow field-effect transistor. LAB ON A CHIP 2021; 21:1987-1997. [PMID: 34008589 DOI: 10.1039/d0lc01328e] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Cell/particle concentration inside droplets holds great potential in extending lab-in-a-droplet applications, typically ranging from biological and chemical assays. Herein, we present a universal, massive and versatile technique, namely, alternating current electrothermal-flow field-effect transistor (ACET-FFET) to accomplish in-droplet cell/synthetic particle concentration on demand. Three parallel planar electrodes are utilized to generate an artificially reorderable electric field inside droplets by tuning the gate voltage through field-effect control, which results in a reshapable ACET-based microvortices pattern for in-droplet concentration. A downstream Y-shaped junction promotes the mother droplet splitting into two daughter droplets containing highly and poorly concentrated cells/particles, respectively. Fluorescent polystyrene (PS) nanoparticles are used to characterize the variations of ACET-microvortices flow pattern formation within droplets. Moreover, the concentration performance is demonstrated using PS microparticles and Neurospora crassa cells. We show that particles/cells can flexibly accumulate into any daughter droplet or be equally concentrated in both daughter droplets by conveniently regulating the gate voltage. The highly concentrated cells at the entrance of the concentrator show an instantaneous response performance to the external electric field. Further, online simultaneous particle synthesis and concentration inside droplets are proposed and implemented for the first time, demonstrated by efficient in-droplet micromixing and Prussian blue (PB) reaction. The accompanying synthetic PB particles are highly concentrated into either daughter droplet, thereby extending the versatility of the platform. The presented in-droplet concentration strategy, together with its unique features of simple geometric configuration, facile operation and broad applicability can broaden utility in droplet microfluidics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Haizhen Sun
- School of Mechatronics Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, West Da-zhi Street 92, Harbin, Heilongjiang, PR China 150001.
| | - Yukun Ren
- School of Mechatronics Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, West Da-zhi Street 92, Harbin, Heilongjiang, PR China 150001. and State Key Laboratory of Robotics and System, Harbin Institute of Technology, West Da-zhi Street 92, Harbin, Heilongjiang, PR China 150001
| | - Ye Tao
- School of Mechatronics Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, West Da-zhi Street 92, Harbin, Heilongjiang, PR China 150001.
| | - Tianyi Jiang
- School of Mechatronics Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, West Da-zhi Street 92, Harbin, Heilongjiang, PR China 150001.
| | - Hongyuan Jiang
- School of Mechatronics Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, West Da-zhi Street 92, Harbin, Heilongjiang, PR China 150001.
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Carrillo AJ, Cabrera IE, Spasojevic MJ, Schacht P, Stajich JE, Borkovich KA. Clustering analysis of large-scale phenotypic data in the model filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa. BMC Genomics 2020; 21:755. [PMID: 33138786 PMCID: PMC7607824 DOI: 10.1186/s12864-020-07131-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/30/2020] [Accepted: 10/09/2020] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Background With 9730 protein-coding genes and a nearly complete gene knockout strain collection, Neurospora crassa is a major model organism for filamentous fungi. Despite this abundance of information, the phenotypes of these gene knockout mutants have not been categorized to determine whether there are broad correlations between phenotype and any genetic features. Results Here, we analyze data for 10 different growth or developmental phenotypes that have been obtained for 1168 N. crassa knockout mutants. Of these mutants, 265 (23%) are in the normal range, while 903 (77%) possess at least one mutant phenotype. With the exception of unclassified functions, the distribution of functional categories for genes in the mutant dataset mirrors that of the N. crassa genome. In contrast, most genes do not possess a yeast ortholog, suggesting that our analysis will reveal functions that are not conserved in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. To leverage the phenotypic data to identify pathways, we used weighted Partitioning Around Medoids (PAM) approach with 40 clusters. We found that genes encoding metabolic, transmembrane and protein phosphorylation-related genes are concentrated in subsets of clusters. Results from K-Means clustering of transcriptomic datasets showed that most phenotypic clusters contain multiple expression profiles, suggesting that co-expression is not generally observed for genes with shared phenotypes. Analysis of yeast orthologs of genes that co-clustered in MAPK signaling cascades revealed potential networks of interacting proteins in N. crassa. Conclusions Our results demonstrate that clustering analysis of phenotypes is a promising tool for generating new hypotheses regarding involvement of genes in cellular pathways in N. crassa. Furthermore, information about gene clusters identified in N. crassa should be applicable to other filamentous fungi, including saprobes and pathogens.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexander J Carrillo
- Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, University of California, 900 University Avenue, Riverside, CA, 92521, USA
| | - Ilva E Cabrera
- Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, University of California, 900 University Avenue, Riverside, CA, 92521, USA
| | - Marko J Spasojevic
- Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology, University of California, Riverside, California, 92521, USA
| | - Patrick Schacht
- Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, University of California, 900 University Avenue, Riverside, CA, 92521, USA
| | - Jason E Stajich
- Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, University of California, 900 University Avenue, Riverside, CA, 92521, USA
| | - Katherine A Borkovich
- Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, University of California, 900 University Avenue, Riverside, CA, 92521, USA.
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Garud A, Carrillo AJ, Collier LA, Ghosh A, Kim JD, Lopez-Lopez B, Ouyang S, Borkovich KA. Genetic relationships between the RACK1 homolog cpc-2 and heterotrimeric G protein subunit genes in Neurospora crassa. PLoS One 2019; 14:e0223334. [PMID: 31581262 PMCID: PMC6776386 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0223334] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2019] [Accepted: 09/18/2019] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Receptor for Activated CKinase-1 (RACK1) is a multifunctional eukaryotic scaffolding protein with a seven WD repeat structure. Among their many cellular roles, RACK1 homologs have been shown to serve as alternative Gβ subunits during heterotrimeric G protein signaling in many systems. We investigated genetic interactions between the RACK1 homolog cpc-2, the previously characterized Gβ subunit gnb-1 and other G protein signaling components in the multicellular filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa. Results from cell fractionation studies and from fluorescent microscopy of a strain expressing a CPC-2-GFP fusion protein revealed that CPC-2 is a cytoplasmic protein. Genetic epistasis experiments between cpc-2, the three Gα genes (gna-1, gna-2 and gna-3) and gnb-1 demonstrated that cpc-2 is epistatic to gna-2 with regards to basal hyphae growth rate and aerial hyphae height, while deletion of cpc-2 mitigates the increased macroconidiation on solid medium observed in Δgnb-1 mutants. Δcpc-2 mutants inappropriately produce conidiophores during growth in submerged culture and mutational activation of gna-3 alleviates this defect. Δcpc-2 mutants are female-sterile and fertility could not be restored by mutational activation of any of the three Gα genes. With the exception of macroconidiation on solid medium, double mutants lacking cpc-2 and gnb-1 exhibited more severe defects for all phenotypic traits, supporting a largely synergistic relationship between GNB-1 and CPC-2 in N. crassa.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amruta Garud
- Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, University of California, Riverside, California, United States of America
| | - Alexander J. Carrillo
- Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, University of California, Riverside, California, United States of America
| | - Logan A. Collier
- Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, University of California, Riverside, California, United States of America
| | - Arit Ghosh
- Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, University of California, Riverside, California, United States of America
| | - James D. Kim
- Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, University of California, Riverside, California, United States of America
| | - Berenise Lopez-Lopez
- Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, University of California, Riverside, California, United States of America
| | - Shouqiang Ouyang
- Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, University of California, Riverside, California, United States of America
| | - Katherine A. Borkovich
- Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, University of California, Riverside, California, United States of America
- * E-mail:
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6
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Wang Z, Gudibanda A, Ugwuowo U, Trail F, Townsend JP. Using evolutionary genomics, transcriptomics, and systems biology to reveal gene networks underlying fungal development. FUNGAL BIOL REV 2018. [DOI: 10.1016/j.fbr.2018.02.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
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7
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Abstract
Regulation of gene expression by DNA-binding transcription factors is essential for proper control of growth and development in all organisms. In this study, we annotate and characterize growth and developmental phenotypes for transcription factor genes in the model filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa. We identified 312 transcription factor genes, corresponding to 3.2% of the protein coding genes in the genome. The largest class was the fungal-specific Zn2Cys6 (C6) binuclear cluster, with 135 members, followed by the highly conserved C2H2 zinc finger group, with 61 genes. Viable knockout mutants were produced for 273 genes, and complete growth and developmental phenotypic data are available for 242 strains, with 64% possessing at least one defect. The most prominent defect observed was in growth of basal hyphae (43% of mutants analyzed), followed by asexual sporulation (38%), and the various stages of sexual development (19%). Two growth or developmental defects were observed for 21% of the mutants, while 8% were defective in all three major phenotypes tested. Analysis of available mRNA expression data for a time course of sexual development revealed mutants with sexual phenotypes that correlate with transcription factor transcript abundance in wild type. Inspection of this data also implicated cryptic roles in sexual development for several cotranscribed transcription factor genes that do not produce a phenotype when mutated.
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Global Analysis of Predicted G Protein-Coupled Receptor Genes in the Filamentous Fungus, Neurospora crassa. G3-GENES GENOMES GENETICS 2015; 5:2729-43. [PMID: 26464358 PMCID: PMC4683645 DOI: 10.1534/g3.115.020974] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
G protein−coupled receptors (GPCRs) regulate facets of growth, development, and environmental sensing in eukaryotes, including filamentous fungi. The largest predicted GPCR class in these organisms is the Pth11-related, with members similar to a protein required for disease in the plant pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae. However, the Pth11-related class has not been functionally studied in any filamentous fungal species. Here, we analyze phenotypes in available mutants for 36 GPCR genes, including 20 Pth11-related, in the model filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa. We also investigate patterns of gene expression for all 43 predicted GPCR genes in available datasets. A total of 17 mutants (47%) possessed at least one growth or developmental phenotype. We identified 18 mutants (56%) with chemical sensitivity or nutritional phenotypes (11 uniquely), bringing the total number of mutants with at least one defect to 28 (78%), including 15 mutants (75%) in the Pth11-related class. Gene expression trends for GPCR genes correlated with the phenotypes observed for many mutants and also suggested overlapping functions for several groups of co-transcribed genes. Several members of the Pth11-related class have phenotypes and/or are differentially expressed on cellulose, suggesting a possible role for this gene family in plant cell wall sensing or utilization.
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Whittle CA, Sun Y, Johannesson H. Dynamics of transcriptome evolution in the model eukaryote Neurospora. J Evol Biol 2014; 27:1125-35. [PMID: 24848562 DOI: 10.1111/jeb.12386] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/05/2014] [Revised: 03/23/2014] [Accepted: 03/28/2014] [Indexed: 12/27/2022]
Abstract
Mounting evidence indicates that changes in the transcriptome contribute significantly to the phenotypic differentiation of closely related species. Nonetheless, further genome-wide studies, spanning a broad range of organisms, are needed to decipher the factors driving transcriptome evolution. The model Neurospora (Ascomycota) comprises a simple system for empirically studying the evolutionary dynamics of the transcriptome. Here, we studied the evolution of gene expression in Neurospora crassa and Neurospora tetrasperma and show that patterns of transcriptome evolution are connected to genome evolution, tissue type and sexual identity (mating types, mat A and mat a) in these eukaryotes. Based on the comparisons of inter- and intraspecies expression divergence, our data reveal that rapid expression divergence is more apt to occur in sexual/female (SF) than vegetative/male (VM) tissues. In addition, interspecies gene expression and protein sequence divergence were strongly correlated for SF, but not VM, tissue. A correlation between transcriptome and protein evolution parallels findings from certain animals, but not yeast, and add support for the theory that expression evolution differs fundamentally among multicellular and unicellular eukaryotes. Finally, we found that sexual identity in these hermaphroditic Neurospora species is connected to interspecies expression divergence in a tissue-dependent manner: rapid divergence occurred for mat A- and mat a-biased genes from SF and VM tissues, respectively. Based on these findings, it is hypothesized that rapid interspecies transcriptome evolution is shifting the mating types of Neurospora towards distinct female and male phenotypes, that is, sexual dimorphism.
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Affiliation(s)
- C A Whittle
- Department of Evolutionary Biology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
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10
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Corcoran P, Dettman JR, Sun Y, Luque EM, Corrochano LM, Taylor JW, Lascoux M, Johannesson H. A global multilocus analysis of the model fungus Neurospora reveals a single recent origin of a novel genetic system. Mol Phylogenet Evol 2014; 78:136-47. [PMID: 24845789 DOI: 10.1016/j.ympev.2014.05.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/28/2013] [Revised: 02/13/2014] [Accepted: 05/06/2014] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
The large diversity of mating systems observed in the fungal kingdom underlines the importance of mating system change in fungal evolution. The selfing species Neurospora tetrasperma has evolved a novel method of achieving self-fertility by a mating system referred to as pseudohomothallism. However, little is known about the origin of N. tetrasperma and its relationship to the self-sterile, heterothallic, Neurospora species. In this study, we used a combination of phylogenetic and population genetic analyses to reconstruct the evolutionary history of N. tetrasperma and its heterothallic relatives. We sequenced 9 unlinked nuclear loci from 106 strains of N. tetrasperma sampled from across the globe, and a sample of 28 heterothallic strains of Neurospora. Our analyses provide strong support for monophyly of N. tetrasperma, but reject the monophyly of N. crassa. We estimate that N. tetrasperma is of a recent origin and that it diverged from the heterothallic species ∼1 million years ago. We also extend previous findings on the diversification within the N. tetrasperma clade, with 10 lineages identified. Taken together, these findings indicate that N. tetrasperma is younger than has been previously reported and that a rapid diversification of lineages has occurred within the N. tetrasperma clade.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pádraic Corcoran
- Department of Evolutionary Biology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
| | - Jeremy R Dettman
- Department of Biology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
| | - Yu Sun
- Department of Evolutionary Biology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Eva M Luque
- Departamento de Genética, Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla, Spain
| | | | - John W Taylor
- Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Martin Lascoux
- Department of Plant Ecology and Evolution, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Hanna Johannesson
- Department of Evolutionary Biology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
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11
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Qi X, Li Y, Honda S, Hoffmann S, Marz M, Mosig A, Podlevsky JD, Stadler PF, Selker EU, Chen JJL. The common ancestral core of vertebrate and fungal telomerase RNAs. Nucleic Acids Res 2012; 41:450-62. [PMID: 23093598 PMCID: PMC3592445 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gks980] [Citation(s) in RCA: 58] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein with an intrinsic telomerase RNA (TER) component. Within yeasts, TER is remarkably large and presents little similarity in secondary structure to vertebrate or ciliate TERs. To better understand the evolution of fungal telomerase, we identified 74 TERs from Pezizomycotina and Taphrinomycotina subphyla, sister clades to budding yeasts. We initially identified TER from Neurospora crassa using a novel deep-sequencing-based approach, and homologous TER sequences from available fungal genome databases by computational searches. Remarkably, TERs from these non-yeast fungi have many attributes in common with vertebrate TERs. Comparative phylogenetic analysis of highly conserved regions within Pezizomycotina TERs revealed two core domains nearly identical in secondary structure to the pseudoknot and CR4/5 within vertebrate TERs. We then analyzed N. crassa and Schizosaccharomyces pombe telomerase reconstituted in vitro, and showed that the two RNA core domains in both systems can reconstitute activity in trans as two separate RNA fragments. Furthermore, the primer-extension pulse-chase analysis affirmed that the reconstituted N. crassa telomerase synthesizes TTAGGG repeats with high processivity, a common attribute of vertebrate telomerase. Overall, this study reveals the common ancestral cores of vertebrate and fungal TERs, and provides insights into the molecular evolution of fungal TER structure and function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaodong Qi
- Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA
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12
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Whittle CA, Johannesson H. Neurospora as a model to empirically test central hypotheses in eukaryotic genome evolution. Bioessays 2012; 34:934-7. [DOI: 10.1002/bies.201200110] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
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13
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Gioti A, Mushegian AA, Strandberg R, Stajich JE, Johannesson H. Unidirectional Evolutionary Transitions in Fungal Mating Systems and the Role of Transposable Elements. Mol Biol Evol 2012; 29:3215-26. [DOI: 10.1093/molbev/mss132] [Citation(s) in RCA: 81] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/05/2023] Open
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14
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Corcoran P, Jacobson DJ, Bidartondo MI, Hickey PC, Kerekes JF, Taylor JW, Johannesson H. Quantifying functional heterothallism in the pseudohomothallic ascomycete Neurospora tetrasperma. Fungal Biol 2012; 116:962-75. [PMID: 22954339 DOI: 10.1016/j.funbio.2012.06.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2012] [Revised: 06/20/2012] [Accepted: 06/25/2012] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
Abstract
Neurospora tetrasperma is a pseudohomothallic filamentous ascomycete that has evolved from heterothallic ancestors. Throughout its life cycle, it is predominantly heterokaryotic for mating type, and thereby self-fertile. However, studies of N. tetrasperma have revealed the occasional production of self-sterile asexual and sexual spores of a single-mating type, indicating that it can be functionally heterothallic. Here, we report the extensive sampling and isolation of natural, heterokaryotic, strains of N. tetrasperma from the United Kingdom (UK): 99 strains were collected from Surrey, England, and four from Edinburgh, Scotland. We verified by phylogenetic analyses that these strains belong to N. tetrasperma. We isolated cultures from single germinated asexual spores (conidia) from 17 of these newly sampled UK strains from Surrey, and 16 previously sampled strains of N. tetrasperma from New Zealand (NZ). Our results show that the N. tetrasperma strains from the UK population produced a significantly greater proportion of self-sterile, homokaryotic conidia than the NZ population: the proportion of homokaryotic conidia was 42.6 % (133/312 spores) and 15.3 % (59/386) from the UK and the NZ populations, respectively. Although homokaryons recovered from several strains show a bias for one of the mating types, the total ratio of mat A to mat a mating type in homokaryons (UK: 72/61, NZ 28/31) did not deviate significantly from the expected 1:1 ratio for either of these populations. These results indicate that different populations exhibit differences in their life cycle characteristics, and that a higher degree of outcrossing might be expected from the UK population. This study points to the importance of studying multiple strains and populations when investigating life history traits of an organism with a complex life cycle, as previously undetected differences between populations may be revealed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pádraic Corcoran
- Department of Evolutionary Biology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
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15
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Luque EM, Gutiérrez G, Navarro-Sampedro L, Olmedo M, Rodríguez-Romero J, Ruger-Herreros C, Tagua VG, Corrochano LM. A relationship between carotenoid accumulation and the distribution of species of the fungus Neurospora in Spain. PLoS One 2012; 7:e33658. [PMID: 22448263 PMCID: PMC3309001 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0033658] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2011] [Accepted: 02/17/2012] [Indexed: 01/21/2023] Open
Abstract
The ascomycete fungus Neurospora is present in many parts of the world, in particular in tropical and subtropical areas, where it is found growing on recently burned vegetation. We have sampled the Neurospora population across Spain. The sampling sites were located in the region of Galicia (northwestern corner of the Iberian peninsula), the province of Cáceres, the city of Seville, and the two major islands of the Canary Islands archipelago (Tenerife and Gran Canaria, west coast of Africa). The sites covered a latitude interval between 27.88° and 42.74°. We have identified wild-type strains of N. discreta, N. tetrasperma, N. crassa, and N. sitophila and the frequency of each species varied from site to site. It has been shown that after exposure to light Neurospora accumulates the orange carotenoid neurosporaxanthin, presumably for protection from UV radiation. We have found that each Neurospora species accumulates a different amount of carotenoids after exposure to light, but these differences did not correlate with the expression of the carotenogenic genes al-1 or al-2. The accumulation of carotenoids in Neurospora shows a correlation with latitude, as Neurospora strains isolated from lower latitudes accumulate more carotenoids than strains isolated from higher latitudes. Since regions of low latitude receive high UV irradiation we propose that the increased carotenoid accumulation may protect Neurospora from high UV exposure. In support of this hypothesis, we have found that N. crassa, the species that accumulates more carotenoids, is more resistant to UV radiation than N. discreta or N. tetrasperma. The photoprotection provided by carotenoids and the capability to accumulate different amounts of carotenoids may be responsible, at least in part, for the distribution of Neurospora species that we have observed across a range of latitudes.
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