Functional genomics in Schizophyllum commune: leveraging the diversity in this hypervariable fungus to understand mushroom development

Informations projet

Mushroomics

N° de convention de subvention: 716132

DOI

10.3030/716132

Projet clôturé

Date de signature de la CE 29 Novembre 2016

Date de début 1 Janvier 2017

Date de fin 31 Decembre 2022

Financé au titre de

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Coût total

€ 1 500 000,00

Contribution de l’UE

€ 1 500 000,00

Coordonné par

UNIVERSITEIT UTRECHT
Netherlands

Periodic Reporting for period 4 - Mushroomics (Functional genomics in Schizophyllum commune: leveraging the diversity in this hypervariable fungus to understand mushroom development)

Période du rapport: 2021-07-01 au 2022-12-31

Résumé du contexte et des objectifs généraux du projet

Mushrooms are the reproductive structures of certain species of fungi, and they are a nutritious and sustainable food source for a growing world population. At the beginning of the project, very little was known about how mushrooms form. Therefore, the aim of this project was to gain more insight in the regulation of mushroom development: how does the fungus decide where to form a mushroom, and which genes are involved in this process?
Having concluded the project, we now understand mushroom development much better. We identified over 15 important regulators of mushroom development. Moreover, we have developed several techniques that will accelerate the study of mushrooms in the future.

Travail effectué depuis le début du projet jusqu’à la fin de la période considérée dans le rapport et principaux résultats atteints jusqu’à présent

Most mushroom-forming fungi are very difficult to work with in the lab, since they grow very slowly or because they are not genetically accessible. For this reason we use a model species for mushroom development, called Schizophyllum commune. In the course of the project, we developed several new methods to efficiently study the genes of mushrooms. This includes a CRISPR/Cas9 method to edit the genome of mushrooms, as well as an approach to study the structure and regulation of the genome.
Using these techniques, we have now identified over 15 regulators of mushroom development. We now better understand how fungi detect environmental signals, and how they process this information, allowing them to decide where to form a mushroom. Furthermore, we discovered that individual strains of a species of mushrooms can be genetically very diverse, which is an important new insight into the evolution of these mushroom-forming fungi.
In conclusion, we now understand mushroom development much better. Next, our results may be used to improve the efficiency of mushroom cultivation, and may also allow us to commercially grow species that are currently unculturable.

Progrès au-delà de l’état des connaissances et impact potentiel prévu (y compris l’impact socio-économique et les conséquences sociétales plus larges du projet jusqu’à présent)

Having concluded the project, we now understand mushroom development much better. We identified over 15 important regulators of mushroom development. Moreover, we have developed several techniques that will accelerate the study of mushrooms in the future.

The mushroom-forming fungus Schizophyllum commune, which we use to study mushroom development