Abstract
BackgroundDaldinia eschscholtzii is a wood-inhabiting fungus that causes wood decay under certain conditions. It has a broad host range and produces a large repertoire of potentially bioactive compounds. However, there is no extensive genome analysis on this fungal species.ResultsTwo fungal isolates (UM 1400 and UM 1020) from human specimens were identified as Daldinia eschscholtzii by morphological features and ITS-based phylogenetic analysis. Both genomes were similar in size with 10,822 predicted genes in UM 1400 (35.8 Mb) and 11,120 predicted genes in UM 1020 (35.5 Mb). A total of 751 gene families were shared among both UM isolates, including gene families associated with fungus-host interactions. In the CAZyme comparative analysis, both genomes were found to contain arrays of CAZyme related to plant cell wall degradation. Genes encoding secreted peptidases were found in the genomes, which encode for the peptidases involved in the degradation of structural proteins in plant cell wall. In addition, arrays of secondary metabolite backbone genes were identified in both genomes, indicating of their potential to produce bioactive secondary metabolites. Both genomes also contained an abundance of gene encoding signaling components, with three proposed MAPK cascades involved in cell wall integrity, osmoregulation, and mating/filamentation. Besides genomic evidence for degrading capability, both isolates also harbored an array of genes encoding stress response proteins that are potentially significant for adaptation to living in the hostile environments.ConclusionsOur genomic studies provide further information for the biological understanding of the D. eschscholtzii and suggest that these wood-decaying fungi are also equipped for adaptation to adverse environments in the human host.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12864-015-2200-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Daldinia eschscholtzii is a wood-inhabiting fungus that causes wood decay under certain conditions
Microscopic observation under the light microscope showed septate conidiophores mononematously or dichotomously branched with conidiogenous cells arising from the terminus
The surface topology of conidiophores and conidia was examined under the scanning electron microscope (SEM)
Summary
Daldinia eschscholtzii is a wood-inhabiting fungus that causes wood decay under certain conditions. It has a broad host range and produces a large repertoire of potentially bioactive compounds. Daldinia eschscholtzii has been isolated from dead trees [3], marine alga [4], Secondary metabolites produced by D. eschscholtzii have potential medical and industrial applications. Chan et al BMC Genomics (2015) 16:966 against Cladosporium cucumerinum was isolated together with helicascolide A from an Indonesian marine algicolous-associated D. eschscholtzii [4]. Daldinia spp. have been reported to produce volatile organic compounds (VOCs) [9,10,11,12] which can be developed in industrial applications for biofuel, biocontrol, and mycofumigation
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