IMA Fungus 13(1): e34008, doi: 10.1186/s43008-022-00091-5

Black fungi and ants: a genomic comparison of species inhabiting carton nests versus domatia

Xin Zhou^‡, Nickolas Menezes Da Silva^§, Bruna Jacomel De Souza Lima^|, Sybren De Hoog^¶, Vania Aparecida Vicente^|, Veronika Mayer^§, Yingqian Kang^#, Dongmei Shi^¤

‡ Canisius Wilhelmina Hospital, Center of Expertise in Mycology of Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen§ University of Vienna, Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research, Wien, Austria| Federal University of Paraná, Graduate Program in Microbiology, Parasitology and Pathology, Biological Sciences, Department of Basic Pathology, Curitiba, Brazil¶ Federal University of Paraná, Microbiology, Parasitology and Pathology Post-Graduation Program, Department of Basic Pathology, Curitiba, Brazil# Guizhou Medical University, Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Monitoring and Disease Control, Ministry of Education of Guizhou and Guizhou Talent Base for Microbiology and Human Health, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Guiyang, China¤ Jining No. 1 People’s Hospital, Department of Dermatology and Laboratory of Medical Mycology, Shandong, China

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Citation: Zhou X, Da Silva N, De Souza Lima B, De Hoog S, Vicente V, Mayer V, Kang Y, Shi D (2022) Black fungi and ants: a genomic comparison of species inhabiting carton nests versus domatia. IMA Fungus 13(1): e34008. https://doi.org/10.1186/s43008-022-00091-5

Abstract

Some members of Chaetothyriales, an order containing potential agents of opportunistic infections in humans, have a natural habitat in nests of tropical arboreal ants. In these black fungi, two types of ant symbiosis are known, i.e. occurrence in domatia inside living plants, or as components of carton constructions made of ant-chewed plant tissue. In order to explain differences between strains from these types of association, we sequenced and annotated genomes of two newly described carton species, Incumbomyces lentus and Incumbomyces delicatus, and compared these with genomes of four domatia species and related Chaetothyriales. General genomic characteristics, CYP genes, carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZymes), secondary metabolism, and sex-related genes were included in the study.

Keywords

Black fungi, Carton fungi, Chaetothyriales, Comparative genomics