Fomitiporia mediterranea by Michael Fischer

Fomitiporia mediterranea is a wood-decaying basidiomycete that produces inconspicuous resupinate polypore fruiting bodies and that is a pathogen of Vitis vinifera, the wine grape (Amalfi et al. 2010; Fischer, 2002). The fungus produces an extensive white rot in the trunks of growing Vitis plants, which is one symptom of the destructive grapevine disease complex esca, which may involve a consortium of pathogens. In addition to being significant as a white rot fungus and plant pathogen, F. mediterranea is the first representative of the order Hymenochaetales to have its genome sequenced. The Hymenochaetales includes diverse wood decay fungi that produce an aggressive white rot and that are often dominant components of wood decay communities (e.g., Hymenochaete, Hydnochaete, Phellinus, Trichaptum), including pathogens that attack live woody plants, and saprotrophs that inhabit dead wood. Prior studies using polymerase chain reaction amplification of class II fungal peroxidases indicated that F. mediterranea possesses manganese peroxidases that are similar to those of the distantly related model white rot organism Phanerochaete chrysosporium, which is in the Polyporales (Morgenstern et al. 2010). The F. mediterranea genome will provide a first look at the complete decay apparatus of an important clade of wood-degrading basidiomycetes that may have unique features of potential applied utility that are not found in the currently best known model systems for decay biology and biochemistry.