Extreme overall mushroom genome expansion in Mycena s.s. irrespective of plant hosts or substrate specializations.

Mycena s.s. is a ubiquitous mushroom genus whose members degrade multiple dead plant substrates and opportunistically invade living plant roots.

Vertical and horizontal gene transfer shaped plant colonization and biomass degradation in the fungal genus Armillaria.

The fungal genus Armillaria contains necrotrophic pathogens and some of the largest terrestrial organisms that cause tremendous losses in diverse ecosystems, yet how they evolved pathogenicity in a clade of dominantly non-pathogenic wood degraders remains elusive. Here we show that Armillaria species, in addition to gene duplications and de novo gene origins, acquired at least 1,025 genes via 124 horizontal gene transfer events, primarily from Ascomycota. Horizontal gene transfer might have affected plant biomass degrading and virulence abilities of Armillaria, and provides an explanation for their unusual, soft rot-like wood decay strategy.

Mycena species can be opportunist-generalist plant root invaders.

Traditional strict separation of fungi into ecological niches as mutualist, parasite or saprotroph is increasingly called into question. Sequences of assumed saprotrophs have been amplified from plant root interiors, and several saprotrophic genera can invade and interact with host plants in laboratory growth experiments. However, it is uncertain if root invasion by saprotrophic fungi is a widespread phenomenon and if laboratory interactions mirror field conditions.

In vitro evidence of root colonization suggests ecological versatility in the genus Mycena.

The root-associated habit has evolved on numerous occasions in different fungal lineages, suggesting a strong evolutionary pressure for saprotrophic fungi to switch to symbiotic associations with plants. Species within the ubiquitous, saprotrophic genus Mycena are frequently major components in molecular studies of root-associated fungal communities, suggesting that an evaluation of their trophic status is warranted. Here, we report on interactions between a range of Mycena species and the plant Betula pendula.

Successional trophic complexity and biogeographical structure of eukaryotic communities in waterworks' rapid sand filters.

As groundwater-fed waterworks clean their raw inlet water with sand filters, a variety of pro- and eukaryotic microbial communities develop on these filters. While several studies have targeted the prokaryotic sand filter communities, little is known about the eukaryotic communities, despite the obvious need for knowledge of microorganisms that get in contact with human drinking water. With a new general eukaryotic primer set (18S, V1-V3 region), we performed FLX-454 sequencing of material from 21 waterworks' sand filters varying in age (3-40 years) and geographical location on a 250 km east-west axis in Denmark, and put the data in context of their previously published prokaryotic communities.

The bacterial microbiota in first-void urine from men with and without idiopathic urethritis.

Background: Non-gonococcal urethritis (NGU) is a common syndrome in men. NGU may have several causes, but many cases are caused by sexually transmitted infections that may also cause complications in their female partners. Chlamydia trachomatis and Mycoplasma genitalium are the most common causes of NGU, but in up to 35% of the cases, none of the known viral or bacterial causes are found.

Towards diagnostic metagenomics of Campylobacter in fecal samples.

Background: The development of diagnostic metagenomics is driven by the need for universal, culture-independent methods for detection and characterization of pathogens to substitute the time-consuming, organism-specific, and often culture-based laboratory procedures for epidemiological source-tracing. Some of the challenges in diagnostic metagenomics are, that it requires a great next-generation sequencing depth and unautomated data analysis.

Results: DNA from human fecal samples spiked with 7.

Local diversity of heathland Cercozoa explored by in-depth sequencing.

Cercozoa are abundant free-living soil protozoa and quantitatively important in soil food webs; yet, targeted high-throughput sequencing (HTS) has not yet been applied to this group. Here we describe the development of a targeted assay to explore Cercozoa using HTS, and we apply this assay to measure Cercozoan community response to drought in a Danish climate manipulation experiment (two sites exposed to artificial drought, two unexposed). Based on a comparison of the hypervariable regions of the 18S ribosomal DNA of 193 named Cercozoa, we concluded that the V4 region is the most suitable for group-specific diversity analysis.

Aminobacter MSH1-Mineralisation of BAM in Sand-Filters Depends on Biological Diversity.

BAM (2,6-dichlorobenzamide) is a metabolite of the pesticide dichlobenil. Naturally occurring bacteria that can utilize BAM are rare. Often the compound cannot be degraded before it reaches the groundwater and therefore it poses a serious threat to drinking water supplies.

Ultrastructure and phylogenetic position of Regin rotiferus and Otto terricolus genera et species novae (Bicosoecida, Heterokonta/Stramenopiles).

We describe two novel flagellates isolated from soil, Regin rotiferus and Otto terricolus, genera et species novae, which we cultivated and characterized by light and transmission electron microscopy and by 18S rDNA sequence analysis. Both strains exhibit the key characteristic structural feature of Bicosoecida; i.e.