Open Access
Transposon-associated epigenetic silencing during Pleurotus ostreatus life cycle
(Oxford University Press, 2018) Borgognone, Alessandra; Castanera Andrés, Raúl; Morselli, Marco; López Varas, Leticia; Rubbi, Liudmilla; Pisabarro de Lucas, Gerardo; Pellegrini, Matteo; Ramírez Nasto, Lucía; Producción Agraria; Nekazaritza Ekoizpena; Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa
Transposable elements constitute an important fraction of eukaryotic genomes. Given their mutagenic potential, host-genomes have evolved epigenetic defense mechanisms to limit their expansion. In fungi, epigenetic modifications have been widely studied in ascomycetes, although we lack a global picture of the epigenetic landscape in basidiomycetes. In this study, we analysed the genome-wide epigenetic and transcriptional patterns of the white-rot basidiomycete Pleurotus ostreatus throughout its life cycle. Our results performed by using high-throughput sequencing analyses revealed that strain-specific DNA methylation profiles are primarily involved in the repression of transposon activity and suggest that 21 nt small RNAs play a key role in transposon silencing. Furthermore, we provide evidence that transposon-associated DNA methylation, but not sRNA production, is directly involved in the silencing of genes surrounded by transposons. Remarkably, we found that nucleus-specific methylation levels varied in dikaryotic strains sharing identical genetic complement but different subculture conditions. Finally, we identified key genes activated in the fruiting process through the comparative analysis of transcriptomes. This study provides an integrated picture of epigenetic defense mechanisms leading to the transcriptional silencing of transposons and surrounding genes in basidiomycetes. Moreover, our findings suggest that transcriptional but not methylation reprogramming triggers fruitbody development in P. ostreatus.
Open Access
Transposable elements versus the fungal genome: impact on whole-genome architecture and transcriptional profiles
(Public Library of Science, 2016) Castanera Andrés, Raúl; López Varas, Leticia; Borgognone, Alessandra; LaButti, Kurt; Lapidus, Alla; Schmutz, Jeremy; Grimwood, Jane; Pérez Garrido, María Gumersinda; Pisabarro de Lucas, Gerardo; Grigoriev, Igor V.; Stajich, Jason E.; Ramírez Nasto, Lucía; Producción Agraria; Nekazaritza Ekoizpena
Transposable elements (TEs) are exceptional contributors to eukaryotic genome diversity. Their ubiquitous presence impacts the genomes of nearly all species and mediates genome evolution by causing mutations and chromosomal rearrangements and by modulating gene expression. We performed an exhaustive analysis of the TE content in 18 fungal genomes, including strains of the same species and species of the same genera. Our results depicted a scenario of exceptional variability, with species having 0.02 to 29.8% of their genome consisting of transposable elements. A detailed analysis performed on two strains of Pleurotus ostreatus uncovered a genome that is populated mainly by Class I elements, especially LTR-retrotransposons amplified in recent bursts from 0 to 2 million years (My) ago. The preferential accumulation of TEs in clusters led to the presence of genomic regions that lacked intra- and inter-specific conservation. In addition, we investigated the effect of TE insertions on the expression of their nearby upstream and downstream genes. Our results showed that an important number of genes under TE influence are significantly repressed, with stronger repression when genes are localized within transposon clusters. Our transcriptional analysis performed in four additional fungal models revealed that this TE-mediated silencing was present only in species with active cytosine methylation machinery. We hypothesize that this phenomenon is related to epigenetic defense mechanisms that are aimed to suppress TE expression and control their proliferation.
Open Access
Comparative and transcriptional analysis of the predicted secretome in the lignocellulose-degrading basidiomycete fungus Pleurotus ostreatus
(Wiley, 2016) Alfaro Sánchez, Manuel; Castanera Andrés, Raúl; Lavín Trueba, José Luis; Oguiza Tomé, José Antonio; Ramírez Nasto, Lucía; Pisabarro de Lucas, Gerardo; Producción Agraria; Nekazaritza Ekoizpena; Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa
Fungi interact with their environment by secreting proteins to obtain nutrients, elicit responses and modify their surroundings. Because the set of proteins secreted by a fungus is related to its lifestyle, it should be possible to use it as a tool to predict fungal lifestyle. To test this hypothesis, we bioinformatically identified 538 and 554 secretable proteins in the monokaryotic strains PC9 and PC15 of the white rot basidiomycete Pleurotus ostreatus. Functional annotation revealed unknown functions (37.2%), glycosyl hydrolases (26.5%) and redox enzymes (11.5%) as the main groups in the two strains. When these results were combined with RNA‐seq analyses, we found that the relative importance of each group was different in different strains and culture conditions and the relevance of the unknown function proteins was enhanced. Only a few genes were actively expressed in a given culture condition in expanded multigene families, suggesting that family expansi on could increase adaptive opportunities rather than activity under a specific culture condition. Finally, we used the set of P. ostreatus secreted proteins as a query to search their counterparts in other fungal genomes and found that the secretome profiles cluster the tested basidiomycetes into lifestyle rather than phylogenetic groups.
Open Access
Somatic transposition and meiotically driven elimination of an active helitron family in Pleurotus ostreatus
(Oxford University Press, 2017) Borgognone, Alessandra; Castanera Andrés, Raúl; Muguerza Domínguez, Elaia; Pisabarro de Lucas, Gerardo; Ramírez Nasto, Lucía; Producción Agraria; Nekazaritza Ekoizpena; Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa
Helitrons constitute a superfamily of DNA transposons that were discovered in silico and are widespread in most eukaryotic genomes. They are postulated to mobilize through a “rollingcircle” mechanism, but the experimental evidence of their transposition has been described only recently. Here, we present the inheritance patterns of HELPO1 and HELPO2 helitron families in meiotically derived progeny of the basidiomycete Pleurotus ostreatus. We found distorted segregation patterns of HELPO2 helitrons that led to a strong under-representation of these elements in the progeny. Further investigation of HELPO2 flanking sites showed that gene conversion may contribute to the elimination of such repetitive elements in meiosis, favouring the presence of HELPO2 vacant loci. In addition, the analysis of HELPO2 content in a reconstructed pedigree of subclones maintained under different culture conditions revealed an event of helitron somatic transposition. Additional analyses of genome and transcriptome data indicated that P. ostreatus carries active RNAi machinery that could be involved in the control of transposable element proliferation. Our results provide the first evidence of helitron mobilization in the fungal kingdom and highlight the interaction between genome defence mechanisms and invasive DNA.
Open Access
Comparative genomics of Coniophora olivacea reveals different patterns of genome expansion in Boletales
(BioMed Central, 2017) Castanera Andrés, Raúl; Pérez Garrido, María Gumersinda; López Varas, Leticia; Amselem, Joëlle; LaButti, Kurt; Singan, Vasanth; Lipzen, Anna; Haridas, Sajeet; Barry, Kerrie; Grigoriev, Igor V.; Pisabarro de Lucas, Gerardo; Ramírez Nasto, Lucía; Producción Agraria; Nekazaritza Ekoizpena; Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa
Background: Coniophora olivacea is a basidiomycete fungus belonging to the order Boletales that produces brown-rot decay on dead wood of conifers. The Boletales order comprises a diverse group of species including saprotrophs and ectomycorrhizal fungi that show important differences in genome size. Results: In this study we report the 39.07-megabase (Mb) draft genome assembly and annotation of C. olivacea. A total of 14,928 genes were annotated, including 470 putatively secreted proteins enriched in functions involved in lignocellulose degradation. Using similarity clustering and protein structure prediction we identified a new family of 10 putative lytic polysaccharide monooxygenase genes. This family is conserved in basidiomycota and lacks of previous functional annotation. Further analyses showed that C. olivacea has a low repetitive genome, with 2.91% of repeats and a restrained content of transposable elements (TEs). The annotation of TEs in four related Boletales yielded important differences in repeat content, ranging from 3.94 to 41.17% of the genome size. The distribution of insertion ages of LTRretrotransposons showed that differential expansions of these repetitive elements have shaped the genome architecture of Boletales over the last 60 million years. Conclusions: Coniophora olivacea has a small, compact genome that shows macrosynteny with Coniophora puteana. The functional annotation revealed the enzymatic signature of a canonical brown-rot. The annotation and comparative genomics of transposable elements uncovered their particular contraction in the Coniophora genera, highlighting their role in the differential genome expansions found in Boletales species.
Open Access
A secretomic view of woody and nonwoody lignocellulose degradation by Pleurotus ostreatus
(BioMed Central, 2016) Fernández Fueyo, Elena; Ruiz Dueñas, Francisco J.; López Lucendo, María F.; Pérez Boada, Marta; Rencoret, Jorge; Gutiérrez, Ana; Pisabarro de Lucas, Gerardo; Ramírez Nasto, Lucía; Martínez, Ángel T.; Producción Agraria; Nekazaritza Ekoizpena
Background: Pleurotus ostreatus is the second edible mushroom worldwide, and a model fungus for delignification applications, with the advantage of growing on woody and nonwoody feedstocks. Its sequenced genome is available, and this gave us the opportunity to perform proteomic studies to identify the enzymes overproduced in lignocellulose cultures. Results: Monokaryotic P. ostreatus (PC9) was grown with poplar wood or wheat straw as the sole C/N source and the extracellular proteins were analyzed, together with those from glucose medium. Using nano-liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry of whole-protein hydrolyzate, over five-hundred proteins were identified. Thirty-four percent were unique of the straw cultures, while only 15 and 6 % were unique of the glucose and poplar cultures, respectively (20 % were produced under the three conditions, and additional 19 % were shared by the two lignocellulose cultures). Semi-quantitative analysis showed oxidoreductases as the main protein type both in the poplar (39 % total abundance) and straw (31 %) secretomes, while carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZys) were only slightly overproduced (14–16 %). Laccase 10 (LACC10) was the main protein in the two lignocellulose secretomes (10–14 %) and, together with LACC2, LACC9, LACC6, versatile peroxidase 1 (VP1), and manganese peroxidase 3 (MnP3), were strongly overproduced in the lignocellulose cultures. Seven CAZys were also among the top-50 proteins, but only CE16 acetylesterase was overproduced on lignocellulose. When the woody and nonwoody secretomes were compared, GH1 and GH3 β-glycosidases were more abundant on poplar and straw, respectively and, among less abundant proteins, VP2 was overproduced on straw, while VP3 was only found on poplar. The treated lignocellulosic substrates were analyzed by two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance (2D NMR), and a decrease of lignin relative to carbohydrate signals was observed, together with the disappearance of some minor lignin substructures, and an increase of sugar reducing ends. Conclusions: Oxidoreductases are strongly induced when P. ostreatus grows on woody and nonwoody lignocellulosic substrates. One laccase occupied the first position in both secretomes, and three more were overproduced together with one VP and one MnP, suggesting an important role in lignocellulose degradation. Preferential removal of lignin vs carbohydrates was shown by 2D NMR, in agreement with the above secretomic results.