Blue light exposure and nutrient conditions influence the expression of genes involved in simultaneous hyphal knot formation in Coprinopsis cinerea.

Light and nutrients are crucial environmental factors influencing fungal sexual reproduction. Blue light induces simultaneous hyphal knot formation in Coprinopsis cinerea mycelia grown on low-glucose media but not in mycelia grown on high-glucose media. Many hyphal knots are visible in the arc near the edge of the colony one day after 15 min of blue light stimulation.

A mutation in the Cc.arp9 gene encoding a putative actin-related protein causes defects in fruiting initiation and asexual development in the agaricomycete Coprinopsis cinerea.

Agaricomycetes exhibit a remarkable morphological differentiation from vegetative mycelia to huge fruiting bodies. To investigate the molecular mechanism underlying the fruiting body development, we have isolated and characterized many Coprinopsis cinerea mutant strains defective in fruiting initiation to date. Dikaryon formation in agaricomycetes, which is followed by fruiting development, is governed by the mating type loci, A and B.

Strand-Specific RNA-Seq Analyses of Fruiting Body Development in Coprinopsis cinerea.

The basidiomycete fungus Coprinopsis cinerea is an important model system for multicellular development. Fruiting bodies of C. cinerea are typical mushrooms, which can be produced synchronously on defined media in the laboratory.

Cc.snf5, a gene encoding a putative component of the SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex, is essential for sexual development in the agaricomycete Coprinopsis cinerea.

We characterized a Coprinopsis cinerea mutant strain, Spe20, defective in fruiting initiation, which was isolated after restriction enzyme-mediated integration (REMI) mutagenesis of a homokaryotic fruiting strain, 326. A plasmid rescue followed by complementation experiments, RACE, and cDNA analyses revealed that the gene, a mutation of which is responsible for the phenotype, is predicted to encode a protein that exhibits a high similarity to yeast Snf5p, a key component of the chromatin remodeling complex SWI/SNF, and named Cc.snf5.

Efficient gene targeting in ΔCc.ku70 or ΔCc.lig4 mutants of the agaricomycete Coprinopsis cinerea.

Coprinopsis cinerea is a model for studies of sexual development in agaricomycetes (homobasidiomycetes). Efficient gene targeting should facilitate such studies, especially because increasing genome and transcriptome information is now available in C. cinerea.

A mutation in the Cc.ubc2 gene affects clamp cell morphogenesis as well as nuclear migration for dikaryosis in Coprinopsis cinerea.

The formation and proliferation of the dikaryon in the agaricomycete Coprinopsis cinerea is controlled by the mating type genes, A and B. The B genes, which encode pheromones and pheromone receptors, control nuclear migration for dikaryosis as well as the fusion of the clamp cell with the subterminal cell while the A genes, which encode two classes of homeodomain proteins, control conjugate nuclear division associated with clamp connection development. We characterized the mutant, B28, which was newly isolated as a strain that fails to form a primary hyphal knot, the first visible sign toward fruiting, from a homokaryotic fruiting strain after REMI mutagenesis.

Mutations in the Cc.rmt1 gene encoding a putative protein arginine methyltransferase alter developmental programs in the basidiomycete Coprinopsis cinerea.

We characterized two developmental mutants of Coprinopsis cinerea, Apa56 and Sac29, newly isolated from a homokaryotic fruiting strain, 326 (Amut Bmut pab1-1), after restriction enzyme-mediated integration (REMI) mutagenesis. Both Apa56 and Sac29 exhibited slower mycelial growth than the parental wild-type strain and failed to initiate fruiting when grown on standard malt extract-yeast extract-glucose medium under 12 h light/12 h dark cycle. Both mutants exhibited unusual differentiation in aerial hyphae: differentiated hyphae lacked clamp connections and exhibited irregular shapes.

Regulation of fruiting body photomorphogenesis in Coprinopsis cinerea.

The agaricomycete (homobasidiomycete) Coprinopsis cinerea has been used as a model to study the molecular mechanism for photomorphogenesis. Molecular genetic analyses of mutants defective in fruiting body (mushroom) photomorphogenesis of C. cinerea identified two genes, dst1 and dst2.

The dst2 gene essential for photomorphogenesis of Coprinopsis cinerea encodes a protein with a putative FAD-binding-4 domain.

The fruiting-body primordium of Coprinopsis cinerea exhibits remarkable photomorphogenesis. Under a 12-h light/12-h dark regime, the primordium proceeds to the fruiting-body maturation phase in which the primordium successively undergoes basidiospore formation, stipe elongation and pileus expansion, resulting in the mature fruiting-body. In continuous darkness, however, the primordium never proceeds to the maturation phase: the pileus and stipe tissues at the upper part of the primordium remain rudimentary while the basal part of the primordium elongates, producing the etiolated "dark stipe" phenotype.

The exp1 gene essential for pileus expansion and autolysis of the inky cap mushroom Coprinopsis cinerea (Coprinus cinereus) encodes an HMG protein.

The homobasidiomycete Coprinopsis cinerea is a member of the fungi known as inky cap mushrooms, and its fruiting-body pileus autolyzes soon after completion of the development. During the last 3h of the development, the pileus exhibits umbrella-like expansion: the pileal tissue is cracked at the base of each gill and then each gill tissue is split to form a V-shape, as seen in a cross section. We identified two C.