A. SEM image of chlamydospores and hyphae of Entomortierella lignicola NRRL 2525. Image taken using a Tescan MIRA3. Scale bar = 20 µm. Photo credit: Megan Korne ([email protected]), Alassane Sow ([email protected]), and Per Askeland ([email protected]). B. SEM image of the ornamentation present on a mature chlamydospore of Entomortierella lignicola NRRL 2525. Image taken using a Tescan MIRA3. Scale bar = 2 µm. Photo credit: Megan Korne ([email protected]), Alassane Sow ([email protected]), and Per Askeland ([email protected]). C. Chlamydospores of Entomortierella lignicola NRRL 2525 stained with lactophenol cotton blue under 100x magnification. Scale bar = 50 µm. Photo credit: Megan Korne ([email protected]) and Alassane Sow ([email protected]).

The genome of Entomortierella lignicola NRRL2525 was sequenced by JGI through the ZygoLife Community Sequencing Project 1978 – “Genomics of the early diverging lineages of fungi and their transition to terrestrial, plant-based ecologies” (http://zygolife.org/home/). Zygomyceteous fungi are an ancient and diverse group of sexual and filamentous fungi, whose evolutionary history and ecological associations remain poorly resolved.

The ZygoLife project aims to: 1) reconstruct the genealogical relationships of this early diverging branch in the fungal tree of life; 2) resolve the origins of symbiotic relationships between plants and zygomycetes; 3) reveal how complex body plans evolved in the group; 4) elucidate mechanisms of mating genetics between organisms with complex and differing life cycles, and; 5) develop genomic barcodes to facilitate identification of unknown fungi. Towards these goals we are sequencing genomes of diverse representative zygomycete taxa.

Mortierellomycotina is composed of a single family, Mortierellaceae, which are industrially important given their unique lipid and fatty acid metabolism. These fungi are diverse in their ecology and are common inhabitants of soils and plants, and may associate with arthropods or other fungi. Despite these observations, many aspects of their basic biology and ecology remain poorly understood.

Entomortierella is one of 13 genera in the Mortierellaceae (Vandepol et al. 2020). In addition to be isolated from soils and decomposing plant materials, Entomortierella can be isolated from ant pellets, termite nests, vermicompost, dung and other substrates. Entomortierella lignicola NRRL2525 is the Type strain originally isolated from rotting wood in Columbia and described as Haplosporangium lignicola (Martin 1937).

References:

G. W. Martin (1937) New or Noteworthy Fungi from Panama and Colombia. I, Mycologia, 29:5, 618-625, DOI: 10.1080/00275514.1937.12017231

Vandepol N, Liber J, Desiro A, Na H, Kennedy M, Barry K, Grigoriev IV, Miller A, O’Donnell K, Stajich J, Bonito G. 2020.  Resolving the Mortierellaceae phylogeny through synthesis of multi-gene phylogenetics and phylogenomics. Fungal Diversity. doi.org/10.1007/s13225-020-00455-5