Predicted Input of Uncultured Fungal Symbionts to a Lichen Symbiosis from Metagenome-Assembled Genomes.

ABSTRACT: Basidiomycete yeasts have recently been reported as stably associated secondary fungal symbionts of many lichens, but their role in the symbiosis remains unknown. Attempts to sequence their genomes have been hampered both by the inability to culture them and their low abundance in the lichen thallus alongside two dominant eukaryotes (an ascomycete fungus and chlorophyte alga). Using the lichen Alectoria sarmentosa, we selectively dissolved the cortex layer in which secondary fungal symbionts are embedded to enrich yeast cell abundance and sequenced DNA from the resulting slurries as well as bulk lichen thallus. In addition to yielding a near-complete genome of the filamentous ascomycete using both methods, metagenomes from cortex slurries yielded a 36- to 84-fold increase in coverage and n

SUBMITTER: Tagirdzhanova G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8355462 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature