Abstract
To elucidate the light-dependent gene expression in Cerrena unicolor FCL139, the transcriptomes of the fungus growing in white, blue, green, and red lighting conditions and darkness were analysed. Among 10,413 all-unigenes detected in C. unicolor, 7762 were found to be expressed in all tested conditions. Transcripts encoding putative fungal photoreceptors in the C. unicolor transcriptome were identified. The number of transcripts uniquely produced by fungus ranged from 20 during its growth in darkness to 112 in the green lighting conditions. We identified numerous genes whose expression differed substantially between the darkness (control) and each of the light variants tested, with the greatest number of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) (454 up- and 457 down-regulated) observed for the white lighting conditions. The DEGs comprised those involved in primary carbohydrate metabolism, amino acid metabolism, autophagy, nucleotide repair systems, signalling pathways, and carotenoid metabolism as defined using Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) database. The analysis of the expression profile of genes coding for lignocellulose-degrading enzymes suggests that the wood-degradation properties of C. unicolor may be independent of the lighting conditions and may result from the overall stimulation of fungal metabolism by daylight.
Highlights
Wood-colonising fungi are known to have unique biochemical pathways enabling them to assimilate a vast array of simple and complex nutrients and to produce a variety of metabolites
Our results provide a comprehensive dataset for analysis of transcriptional profile changes occurring in fungal cells in response to variable lighting conditions, contributing to better understanding of C. unicolor photobiology and light dependent metabolism and behaviour of this environmentally and commercially important fungus
Fifteen cDNA samples were prepared from C. unicolor mycelia and sequenced as pair-end reads using the Solid 5500 platform resulting in a total average of 113.6 million (for C. unicolor cDNA samples obtained after growth in green (G) light) to 128.3 million reads (red (R) light) (Table 1)
Summary
Wood-colonising fungi are known to have unique biochemical pathways enabling them to assimilate a vast array of simple and complex nutrients and to produce a variety of metabolites. Environmental factors greatly influence decay caused by white rot fungi [4], and light is one of the most important signals for every living cell. Only a few photoreceptor systems have developed during evolution, comprising flavin-based blue-light, retinal-based green-light (such as rhodopsin), and linear tetrapyrrole-based red-light sensors [6] All these major classes of photoreceptors are found in fungi suggesting that they can detect specific wavelengths by discrete receptor proteins [7]. We report a comparative transcriptome analysis based on high throughput RNA sequencing experiment of C. unicolor FCL139 cultivated in different lighting conditions. Our results provide a comprehensive dataset for analysis of transcriptional profile changes occurring in fungal cells in response to variable lighting conditions, contributing to better understanding of C. unicolor photobiology and light dependent metabolism and behaviour of this environmentally and commercially important fungus
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