Synergism between blue light and root exudate compounds and evidence for a second messenger in the hyphal branching response ofGigaspora gigantea

Expression of putative circadian clock components in the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus Rhizoglomus irregulare

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are obligatory plant symbionts that live underground, so few studies have examined their response to light. Responses to blue light by other fungi can be mediated by White Collar-1 (WC-1) and WC-2 proteins. These wc genes, together with the frequency gene (frq), also form part of the endogenous circadian clock. The clock mechanism has never been studied in AMF, although circadian growth of their hyphae in the field has been reported. Using both genomic and transcriptomic data, we have found homologs of wc-1, wc-2, and frq and related circadian clock genes in the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus Rhizoglomus irregulare (synonym Rhizophagus irregularis). Gene expression of wc-1, wc-2, and frq was analyzed using RT-qPCR on RNA extracted from germinating spores and from fungal material cultivated in vitro with transformed carrot roots. We found that all three core clock genes were expressed in both pre- and post-mycorrhizal stages of R. irregulare growth. Similar to the model fungus Neurospora crassa, the core circadian oscillator gene frq was induced by brief light stimulation. The presence of circadian clock and output genes in R. irregulare opens the door to the study of circadian clocks in the fungal partner of plant-AMF symbiosis. Our finding also provides new insight into the evolution of the circadian frq gene in fungi.

Gravisusception by buoyancy: a mechanism ubiquitous among fungi?

Gravitropism is ubiquitous among the fungal taxa; however, the mechanism(s) of gravisusception have overall remained obscure so far. In the vegetative sporangiophore of the zygomycete Phycomyces blakesleeanus some 200 large lipid globules form a conspicuous spherical complex which is positioned in a dense mesh of filamentous actin about 100 microm below the growing tip of the apex. Experimental suppression of that complex by transient growth at low temperature greatly diminishes the gravitropic response of the sporangiophore. With respect to size and abundance of the globules, the complex of lipid globules meets basic physical criteria for a possible function of gravisusception. Accumulations of similar lipid globules of critical size are documented in the apex of gravitropically growing hyphae of the endomycorrhizal fungus Gigaspora margarita (Glomeromycota) and have been described in the hyphal apices of members of various fungal phyla. We suppose that--in contrast to plants which use starch as a carbon storage and amyloplasts as statoliths--the fungi utilise the buoyancy of carbon-storing oil droplets for gravisusception.