Fungi articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mitochondria are asymmetrically inherited during cell division, a process that can affect cell fate and lifespan. Here the authors describe a mechanism for mitochondrial quality control in yeast that maintains a reservoir of high-functioning mitochondria in mother cells and preserves maternal reproductive capacity.

    • Wolfgang M. Pernice
    • , Jason D. Vevea
    •  & Liza A. Pon

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Auxilliary Activity Family 5 (AA5) comprises mononuclear copper radical oxidases with catalytic diversity that is not well characterised. Here, structural, phylogenetic and biochemical analyses advance our understanding of the potential biological and biotechnology functions of these proteins.

    • DeLu (Tyler) Yin
    • , Saioa Urresti
    •  & Harry Brumer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The loss of telomeres is a catastrophic event and eukaryotes have evolved multiple strategies to overcome this. Here the authors show that Saccharomyces cerevisiaecan generate aneuploid survivors that upregulate telomerase to overcome telomere loss.

    • Caroline Millet
    • , Darya Ausiannikava
    •  & Svetlana Makovets

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cellobiose dehydrogenases (CDHs) cooperate with lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs) to catalyse cellulose degradation. Here Tan et al. define the electron transfer pathway in CDH, providing a structural analysis of CDH conformers and of the interaction between CDH and LPMO during cellulose depolymerisation.

    • Tien-Chye Tan
    • , Daniel Kracher
    •  & Christina Divne

  • Article |

    Airway hyper-responsiveness, a hallmark of asthma, is often associated with sensitization to fungi. Here, the authors show that a fungal protease allergen Asp f13/Alp1 from Aspergillus fumigatuscan promote airway hyper-responsiveness in asthma via its effect on the airway smooth muscle cells.

    • Nariman A. Balenga
    • , Michael Klichinsky
    •  & Kirk M. Druey

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cryptococcus neoformans is a fungal pathogen that causes meningoencephalitis. Here the authors describe the production of a gene-deletion mutant collection representing most C. neoformansnon-essential transcription factors, providing insight into the signalling networks that govern the biology and pathogenicity of this fungus.

    • Kwang-Woo Jung
    • , Dong-Hoon Yang
    •  & Yong-Sun Bahn

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Several pathogenic fungi such as Candida albicans undergo transitions between single-celled forms and multicellular filaments. Here the authors perform a genome-scale analysis of C. albicansand show that, contrary to common belief, filamentation is not required for escape from host immune cells.

    • Teresa R. O’Meara
    • , Amanda O. Veri
    •  & Leah E. Cowen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Soil-dwelling ectomycorrhizal fungi trigger remodelling of root architecture as part of a mutualistic symbiotic relationship with host plants. Here, Ditengou et al. identify fungal-derived sesquiterpenes as volatile signals capable of stimulating lateral root production in Arabidopsis and Populus.

    • Franck A. Ditengou
    • , Anna Müller
    •  & Andrea Polle

  • Article |

    In fission yeast, the telomerase RNA (TER) is produced through inhibition of the second step in splicing, resulting in spliceosomal cleavage. Here, the authors show that the inhibition of splicing is a conserved principle in fungal TER maturation that uses distinct molecular mechanisms across species.

    • Xiaodong Qi
    • , Dustin P. Rand
    •  & Julian J. -L. Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ecological communities consist of complex networks of interacting species whose linkages may be difficult to follow. Using next-generation sequencing, Toju et al.uncover the architecture of a plant-fungus network and find clear structural differences when compared with other communities.

    • Hirokazu Toju
    • , Paulo R. Guimarães
    •  & John N. Thompson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It is unclear how the nuclei of very long fungal cells (hyphae) receive information from the hyphal tips during the invasion of plant tissues. Here, the authors show that retrograde movement of early endosomes, from the hyphal tip to the nucleus, is required for this signalling process.

    • Ewa Bielska
    • , Yujiro Higuchi
    •  & Gero Steinberg

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae produces large and small spores, and the role played by the small spores (microconidia) in plant infection is unknown. Here, Zhang et al.show that the microconidia can cause disease by infecting plants through wounds or flowering heads.

    • Huili Zhang
    • , Zhongshou Wu
    •  & Jin-Rong Xu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Non-coding RNAs are widely expressed, yet their functions remain poorly understood. Here, Leong et al. identify a set of antisense RNAs elevated during the yeast stress response that directly correlate with reduced protein levels, indicating a general regulatory effect of antisense expression.

    • Hui Sun Leong
    • , Keren Dawson
    •  & Crispin J. Miller

  • Article |

    Plant species share a core metabolome, however the extent to which metabolic responses to environmental cues are also conserved remains unclear. Schweiger et al.describe shifts in the leaf metabolomes of five plant species during mycorrhizal fungal infection, and uncover high species-specificity.

    • Rabea Schweiger
    • , Markus C. Baier
    •  & Caroline Müller

  • Article |

    Eukaryotic algae and cyanobacteria can produce hydrogen in the presence of little or no oxygen. Here, the authors show that two microalgal strains are capable of producing hydrogen under aerobic conditions, and provide new insights into the natural evolution of oxygen-tolerant hydrogenase.

    • Jae-Hoon Hwang
    • , Hyun-Chul Kim
    •  & Byong-Hun Jeon

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Phytophthora infestanscaused the potato famine in the nineteenth century. Martinet al. sequence the nuclear genomes of five archival samples of the pathogen and compare these to extant specimens allowing the reconstruction of the evolutionary history of P. infestans.

    • Michael D. Martin
    • , Enrico Cappellini
    •  & M. Thomas P. Gilbert

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The rice sheath blight pathogen, Rhizoctonia solani, is an important fungal pathogen that can devastate rice and maize crops. Zheng and colleagues sequence and assemble the R. solani AG1 IA genome—the first to be sequenced from the Rhizoctoniagenus—using Illumina sequencing technology.

    • Aiping Zheng
    • , Runmao Lin
    •  & Ping Li

  • Article |

    Microsporidia are widespread human parasites, but limited genome annotation has hampered efforts to understand their biology. Peyretailladeet al. use sequence motifs upstream of start codons to annotate or re-annotate microsporidian genomes and find new genes potentially involved in interactions with the host.

    • Eric Peyretaillade
    • , Nicolas Parisot
    •  & Pierre Peyret

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The ability of oleaginous fungi to produce lipids for biofuels remains untapped, in part due to a lack of genetic information required to engineer industrial strains. Zhuet al. present the genome of R. toruloides, and identify transcriptomic and proteomic changes associated with lipid production.

    • Zhiwei Zhu
    • , Sufang Zhang
    •  & Zongbao K. Zhao

  • Article |

    Methane is an important anthropogenic greenhouse gas and is thought to be produced by industrial processes and prokaryotic methanogenic Archaea. In this study, the saprotrophic fungi,Basidiomycetes, is shown to produce methane in the absence of methanogenic Archaea.

    • Katharina Lenhart
    • , Michael Bunge
    •  & Frank Keppler

  • Article |

    Mechanosensitive channels are required to sense cell swelling in response to osmotic shock. Nakayamaet al.report that Msy1 and Msy2 are the fission yeast homologues of the bacterial mechanosensitive channel MscS, and are required for regulating intracellular calcium in response to cell swelling.

    • Yoshitaka Nakayama
    • , Kenjiro Yoshimura
    •  & Hidetoshi Iida

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ganoderma lucidumis a macrofungus in traditional Chinese medicine known to produce different bioactive compounds. In this study, the genome ofG. lucidumis sequenced, making this organism a potential model system for future studies of secondary metabolic pathways and their regulation in medicinal fungi.

    • Shilin Chen
    • , Jiang Xu
    •  & Chao Sun

  • Article |

    It is unclear whether pathogens can advantageously exploit the host's immune response. UsingCandida albicans, the authors show that host IL-17A binds to the fungi and induces nutrient starvation and autophagy, which eventually leads to enhanced biofilm formation and resistance to the hosts' defence.

    • Teresa Zelante
    • , Rossana G. Iannitti
    •  & Luigina Romani

  • Article
    | Open Access

    GALgenes enhance their own transcription via the transcription factor Gal4p, and the number of Galp4 sites in a promoter is expected to strengthen the feedback. In this study, Hsuet al. show that instead the feedback loops are activated by genes that have frequent bursts of expression and fast RNA decay kinetics.

    • Chieh Hsu
    • , Simone Scherrer
    •  & Attila Becskei

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Saccharomycesyeasts can produce ethanol from sugars in the presence of oxygen. In this study, the authors demonstrate thatDekkera bruxellensis, a distantly related yeast, can also produce and consume ethanol due to the loss of a cis-regulatory element from the promoters of genes crucial for respiration.

    • Elżbieta Rozpędowska
    • , Linda Hellborg
    •  & Jure Piškur

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Leptosphaeria maculans is a plant pathogen that causes stem canker of oilseed rape. Rouxel et al. sequence and describe the key features of the L. maculansgenome, including partitioning into AT-rich blocks that are enriched in effector genes and transposable elements affected by repeat-induced point mutation.

    • Thierry Rouxel
    • , Jonathan Grandaubert
    •  & Barbara J. Howlett

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A comparison of related genomes provides valuable information about how they evolve. Here, the complete sequence of the smallest known nuclear genome from the microsporidiaE. intestinalis is described and compared with its larger sister E. cuniculi, revealing what parts are indispensable in even the most reduced genomes.

    • Nicolas Corradi
    • , Jean-François Pombert
    •  & Patrick J. Keeling

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