Fungal Epigenetic Engineering

Abstract

Increasing evidence suggest that the environmental contexts of fungi include not only abiotic factors but also biotic factors such as bacterial and viral endosymbionts. Fungal endosymbionts or endofungal microbes, especially from bacteria and viruses, are major determinants of fungal phenotypes and fungi interaction with their relevant hosts and environments. It is recently highlighted that such endofungal cellular and acellular microbial communities, much like genetic engineering, alter or modulate fungal phenotypes and their interaction with the relevant host organisms. Endofungal or endohyphal bacteria (EHB) have the capability of modulating host fungi growth and reproduction, as well as their primary and secondary metabolism, enzyme synthesis, phytohormone synthesis, substrate use, stress tolerance, virulence, and fungal-plant interaction. Similarly, endofungal viruses, known as mycoviruses, affect various fungal phenotypes such as pathogenicity, virulence, stress tolerance, and fungal-plant interaction. Mutualistic persistent benign viruses seem to be more prevalent in fungi than previously realized. Thus, endosymbionts could be exploited, by vertical or horizontal transmit mechanisms, as novel tools in fungal epigenetic engineering. In this chapter, the extended phenotypes of endofungal microbes, known until today, are reviewed, and their current and potential uses in fungal bioengineering are discussed.