Evaluation of sequencing and PCR-based methods for the quantification of the viral genome formula.

Viruses show great diversity in their genome organization. Multipartite viruses package their genome segments into separate particles, most or all of which are required to initiate infection in the host cell. The benefits of such seemingly inefficient genome organization are not well understood.

Ancestral predisposition toward a domesticated lifestyle in the termite-cultivated fungus Termitomyces.

The ancestor of termites relied on gut symbionts for degradation of plant material, an association that persists in all termite families. However, the single-lineage Macrotermitinae has additionally acquired a fungal symbiont that complements digestion of food outside the termite gut. Phylogenetic analysis has shown that fungi grown by these termites form a clade-the genus Termitomyces-but the events leading toward domestication remain unclear.

Somatic deficiency causes reproductive parasitism in a fungus.

Some multicellular organisms can fuse because mergers potentially provide mutual benefits. However, experimental evolution in the fungus Neurospora crassa has demonstrated that free fusion of mycelia favours cheater lineages, but the mechanism and evolutionary dynamics of this exploitation are unknown. Here we show, paradoxically, that all convergently evolved cheater lineages have similar fusion deficiencies.

An unusual sexual stage in the alkalophilic ascomycete Sodiomyces alkalinus.

Exploring life cycles of fungi is insightful for understanding their basic biology and can highlight their ecology. Here, we dissected the sexual and asexual life cycles of the obligate alkalophilic ascomycete Sodiomyces alkalinus that thrives at extremely high pH of soda lakes. S.

The obligate alkalophilic soda-lake fungus Sodiomyces alkalinus has shifted to a protein diet.

Sodiomyces alkalinus is one of the very few alkalophilic fungi, adapted to grow optimally at high pH. It is widely distributed at the plant-deprived edges of extremely alkaline lakes and locally abundant. We sequenced the genome of S.

The alkalophilic fungus Sodiomyces alkalinus hosts beta- and gammapartitiviruses together with a new fusarivirus.

Mixed infection by three dsRNA viruses, a novel betapartitivirus, a gammapartitivirus, and a novel fusarivirus, has been identified in four isolates of the obligate alkalophilic fungus Sodiomyces alkalinus. The first, Sodiomyces alkalinus partitivirus 1 (SaPV1), is placed within the genus Betapartitivirus and is related to Ustilaginoidea virens partitivirus 2. The taxonomic position of the second virus is less clear as it shares high (85%) amino acid sequence identity but significantly low (77%) nucleotide sequence identity of the capsid protein with Colletotrichum truncatum partitivirus 1.

Membrane lipids and soluble sugars dynamics of the alkaliphilic fungus Sodiomyces tronii in response to ambient pH.

Alkaliphily, the ability of an organism to thrive optimally at high ambient pH, has been well-documented in several lineages: archaea, bacteria and fungi. The molecular mechanics of such adaptation has been extensively addressed in alkaliphilic bacteria and alkalitolerant fungi. In this study, we consider an additional property that may have enabled fungi to prosper at alkaline pH: altered contents of membrane lipids and cytoprotectant molecules.

Are alkalitolerant fungi of the Emericellopsis lineage (Bionectriaceae) of marine origin?

Surveying the fungi of alkaline soils in Siberia, Trans-Baikal regions (Russia), the Aral lake (Kazakhstan), and Eastern Mongolia, we report an abundance of alkalitolerant species representing the Emericellopsis-clade within the Acremonium cluster of fungi (order Hypocreales). On an alkaline medium (pH ca. 10), 34 acremonium-like fungal strains were obtained.