Project description:Chaetomium globosum is a model of conditional pathogens abundant on a wide variety of substrates in soil, water, and atmosphere environments. Homothallic C. globosum produces hairy perithecia bearing meiotic ascospores that are resistant to harsh conditions for dispersal, and asexual reproduction of conidia has never been observed. RNAs were samples from nine distinct morphological stages during the nearly synchronic perithecial development for C. globosum. Unlike the heterothallic Neurospora crassa, the mating type gene mat a-1 showed comparatively lower expression changes but highly coordinate with expression regulation of mat A-1 in C. globosum. Key regulators, including orthologs of N. crassa sub-1, sub-1 dependent gene NCU00309, and asl-1, in the initiation of sexual development in response to light stimuli, showed similar regulation dynamics between C. globosum and N. crassa. Knockout phenotyping directed by the comparative analysis of transcriptomics between C. globosum and its’ closely related Neurospora crassa also suggested some genes that are critical for perithecial development. Among 24 secondary metabolism clusters composed more than 3 genes in C. globosum, 11 showed highly coordinated expression across the perithecial development, and dramatically up-regulation was recorded for all 12 genes in the cochliodones biosynthesis cluster. Up-regulation of chaetoglocin and aureonitol biosynthesis clusters was found to be associated with disturbance in early sexual development and with ascospore maturation. Similar to pathogenic Fusarium graminearum, C. globosum showed coordinately up-regulated expression of homologs of histidine kinases in hyperosmotic response pathways, consist with their ecology adapting to high humidity.
Project description:The thermophilic filamentous fungi Myceliophthora thermophila (Sporotrichum thermophile) and Thielavia terrestris are proficient decomposers of cellulose, suggesting that they will be a rich source of thermostable industrial enzymes for lignocellulose degradation. To identify the genes and proteins involved in this process, we explored the transcriptomes of M. thermophila and T. terrestris growing at 45 ºC on either glucose, alfalfa, or barley straw by short-read sequencing of extracted mRNA. To better understand the adaptations that allow these fungi to grow at elevated temperatures, we compared their transcriptomes when growing at 34C to their transcritomes at 45C, and also to the transcriptome of the related fungus Chaetomium globosum, which does not grow at 45C.
Project description:The thermophilic filamentous fungi Myceliophthora thermophila (Sporotrichum thermophile) and Thielavia terrestris are proficient decomposers of cellulose, suggesting that they will be a rich source of thermostable industrial enzymes for lignocellulose degradation. To identify the genes and proteins involved in this process, we explored the transcriptomes of M. thermophila and T. terrestris growing at 45 ºC on either glucose, alfalfa, or barley straw by short-read sequencing of extracted mRNA. To better understand the adaptations that allow these fungi to grow at elevated temperatures, we compared their transcriptomes when growing at 34C to their transcritomes at 45C, and also to the transcriptome of the related fungus Chaetomium globosum, which does not grow at 45C. RNA was extracted from cultures in early growth stage growing with glucose, alfalfa, or barley straw as carbon source at 34C or 45C (M. thermophila and T. terrestris); duplicate cultures were sampled in some conditions.
Project description:Chaetomium globosum Kunze is recognized as a potential biocontrol fungus against spot blotch of wheat caused by Bipolaris sorokiniana. Its molecular mechanism of biocontrol activity and the biosynthetic pathways involved have not been yet elucidated. Here, global transcriptome profiling of C. globosum strain Cg2 during interaction with B. sorokiniana isolate BS112 using RNA-seq was performed in order to gain insights into the potential mechanisms of antagonism. The Illumina HiSeq platform (2 × 150 bp) yielded an average of 20-22 million reads with 50-58% GC. De novo assembly generated 45,582 transcripts with 27,957 unigenes. Transcriptome analysis displayed distinct expression profiles in the interaction (Cg2-BS112), out of which 6,109 unique differentially expressed genes were present. The predominant transcripts classified as genes involved in "catalytic activity" constituted 45.06%, of which 10.02% were associated with "hydrolytic activity" (GO:0008152), and similarly, in the biological process, 29.18% of transcripts were involved in "metabolic activity" (GO:0004096 and GO:0006979). Heat map and cluster categorization suggested an increase in the expression levels of genes encoding secondary metabolites like polyketide synthase (GO:0009058), S-hydroxymethyl glutathione dehydrogenase (GO:0006069), terpene cyclase (EC 4.2.3.-), aminotran_1_2 domain-containing protein (GO:0009058), and other hydrolytic CAZYmes such as the glycosyl hydrolase (GH) family (GH 13, GH 2, GH 31, and GH 81; GO:0005975), cellulase domain-containing protein, chitinases, β-1, 3-glucanases (GO:0004565), glucan endo-1,3-beta-glucanase (GO:0052861), and proteases (GO:0004177). The obtained RNA-seq data were validated by RT-qPCR using 20 randomly chosen genes, showing consistency with the RNA-seq results. The present work is worldwide the first effort to unravel the biocontrol mechanism of C. globosum against B. sorokiniana. It generated a novel dataset for further studies and facilitated improvement of the gene annotation models in the C. globosum draft genome.
Project description:Onychomycosis is usually caused by dermatophytes, but some nondermatophytic molds and yeasts are also associated with invasion of nails. The genus Chaetomium is a dematiaceous nondermatophytic mold found in soil and plant debris as a saprophytic fungus. We report the first Korean case of onychomycosis caused by Chaetomium globosum in a 35-year-old male. The patient showed brownish-yellow discoloration and subungual hyperkeratosis on the right toenails (1st and 5th) and left toenails (1st and 4th). Direct microscopic examination of scraping on the potassium hydroxide preparation revealed septate hyphae and repeated cultures on Sabouraud's dextrose agar (SDA) without cycloheximide slants showed the same fast-growing colonies, which were initially velvety white then turned to dark gray to brown. However, there was no growth of colony on SDA with cycloheximide slants. Brown-colored septated hyphae, perithecia and ascospores were shown in the slide culture. The DNA sequence of internal transcribed spacer region of the clinical sample was a 100% match to that of C. globosum strain ATCC 6205 (GenBank accession number EF524036.1). We confirmed C. globosum by KOH mount, colony, and light microscopic morphology and DNA sequence analysis. The patient was treated with 250 mg oral terbinafine daily and topical amorolfine 5% nail lacquer for 3 months.