Project description:Wood-decaying fungi tend to have characteristic substrate ranges that partly define their ecological niche. Fomitopsis pinicola is a brown rot species of Polyporales that is reported on 82 species of softwoods and 42 species of hardwoods. We analyzed the gene expression levels and RNA editing profiles of F. pinicola from submerged cultures with ground wood powder (sampled at 5 days) or solid wood wafers (sampled at 10 and 30 days), using aspen, pine, and spruce substrates (aspen was used only in submerged cultures). Fomitopsis pinicola expressed similar sets of wood-degrading enzymes typical of brown rot fungi across all culture conditions and time points. Nevertheless, differential gene expression and RNA editing were observed across all pairwise comparisons of substrates and time points. Genes exhibiting differential expression and RNA editing encode diverse enzymes with known or potential function in brown rot decay, including laccase, benzoquinone reductase, aryl alcohol oxidase, cytochrome P450s, and various glycoside hydrolases. There was no overlap between differentially expressed and differentially edited genes, suggesting that these may provide F. pinicola with independent mechanisms for responding to different conditions. Comparing transcriptomes from submerged cultures and wood wafers, we found that culture conditions had a greater impact on global expression profiles than substrate wood species. In contrast, the suites of genes subject to RNA editing were much less affected by culture conditions. These findings highlight the need for standardization of culture conditions in studies of gene expression in wood-decaying fungi.IMPORTANCE All species of wood-decaying fungi occur on a characteristic range of substrates (host plants), which may be broad or narrow. Understanding the mechanisms that enable fungi to grow on particular substrates is important for both fungal ecology and applied uses of different feedstocks in industrial processes. We grew the wood-decaying polypore Fomitopsis pinicola on three different wood species, aspen, pine, and spruce, under various culture conditions. We examined both gene expression (transcription levels) and RNA editing (posttranscriptional modification of RNA, which can potentially yield different proteins from the same gene). We found that F. pinicola is able to modify both gene expression and RNA editing profiles across different substrate species and culture conditions. Many of the genes involved encode enzymes with known or predicted functions in wood decay. This work provides clues to how wood-decaying fungi may adjust their arsenal of decay enzymes to accommodate different host substrates.

Project description:Basidiomycota fungi in the order Polyporales are specified to decomposition of dead wood and woody debris and thereby are crucial players in the degradation of organic matter and cycling of carbon in the forest ecosystems. Polyporales wood-decaying species comprise both white rot and brown rot fungi, based on their mode of wood decay. While the white rot fungi are able to attack and decompose all the lignocellulose biopolymers, the brown rot species mainly cause the destruction of wood polysaccharides, with minor modification of the lignin units. The biochemical mechanism of brown rot decay of wood is still unclear and has been proposed to include a combination of nonenzymatic oxidation reactions and carbohydrate-active enzymes. Therefore, a linking approach is needed to dissect the fungal brown rot processes. We studied the brown rot Polyporales species Fomitopsis pinicola by following mycelial growth and enzyme activity patterns and generating metabolites together with Fenton-promoting Fe3+-reducing activity for 3 months in submerged cultures supplemented with spruce wood. Enzyme activities to degrade hemicellulose, cellulose, proteins, and chitin were produced by three Finnish isolates of F. pinicola Substantial secretion of oxalic acid and a decrease in pH were notable. Aromatic compounds and metabolites were observed to accumulate in the fungal cultures, with some metabolites having Fe3+-reducing activity. Thus, F. pinicola demonstrates a pattern of strong mycelial growth leading to the active production of carbohydrate- and protein-active enzymes, together with the promotion of Fenton biochemistry. Our findings point to fungal species-level "fine-tuning" and variations in the biochemical reactions leading to the brown rot type of wood decay.IMPORTANCEFomitopsis pinicola is a common fungal species in boreal and temperate forests in the Northern Hemisphere encountered as a wood-colonizing saprotroph and tree pathogen, causing a severe brown rot type of wood degradation. However, its lignocellulose-decomposing mechanisms have remained undiscovered. Our approach was to explore both the enzymatic activities and nonenzymatic Fenton reaction-promoting activities (Fe3+ reduction and metabolite production) by cultivating three isolates of F. pinicola in wood-supplemented cultures. Our findings on the simultaneous production of versatile enzyme activities, including those of endoglucanase, xylanase, β-glucosidase, chitinase, and acid peptidase, together with generation of low pH, accumulation of oxalic acid, and Fe3+-reducing metabolites, increase the variations of fungal brown rot decay mechanisms. Furthermore, these findings will aid us in revealing the wood decay proteomic, transcriptomic, and metabolic activities of this ecologically important forest fungal species.

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	SRR070908.fastq.gz	Fastqsanger.gz
	SRR070909.fastq.gz	Fastqsanger.gz
	SRR070910.fastq.gz	Fastqsanger.gz
	SRR070911.fastq.gz	Fastqsanger.gz

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Fomitopsis pinicola

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