Diverse data supports the transition of filamentous fungal model organisms into the post-genomics era

Abstract

Filamentous fungi have been important as model organisms since the beginning of modern biological inquiry and have benefitted from open data since the earliest genetic maps were shared. From early origins in simple Mendelian genetics of mating types, parasexual genetics of colony colour, and the foundational demonstration of the segregation of a nutritional requirement, the contribution of research systems utilising filamentous fungi has spanned the biochemical genetics era, through the molecular genetics era, and now are at the very foundation of diverse omics approaches to research and development. Fungal model organisms have come from most major taxonomic groups although Ascomycete filamentous fungi have seen the most major sustained effort. In addition to the published material about filamentous fungi, shared molecular tools have found application in every area of fungal biology. Similarly, shared data has contributed to the success of model systems. The scale of data supporting research with filamentous fungi has grown by 10 to 12 orders of magnitude. From genetic to molecular maps, expression databases, and finally genome resources, the open and collaborative nature of the research communities has assured that the rising tide of data has lifted all of the research systems together.

Carboxymethyl Starch/Medium Chain Fatty Acid Compositions: Rheological Changes During Storage and Selected Film Properties

“…Therefore, controlling the food spoilage mediated by A. flavus at its source is critical to limiting the health hazards of aflatoxin and to preventing substantial economic losses and finally, Aspergillus niger is proposed as a an important model organism for several research areas including the study of eukaryotic protein secretion in general, the effects of various environmental factors on suppressing or triggering the export of various biomass degrading enzymes, molecular mechanisms critical to fermentation process development, and mechanisms involved in the control of fungal growth, for example in cosmetics . [37,38] The results of film disk inhibition zone assay are presented in Table 3. Interestingly, even where there are no inhibition zones, all the studied compositions exhibited inhibiting activity towards growth of A. flavus spores.…”

21st century miniguide to fungal biotechnology

“…Techniques described above enable the most detailed manipulation of the fungal genome. It's only a slight exaggeration to say that if you can dream of a genetic manipulation, then there's a genome editing technology that can now make it happen (McCluskey & Baker, 2017). Hibbett et al (2013) call the science 'genome-enabled mycology' describing it as being characterised '…by the pervasive use of genome-scale data and associated computational tools in all aspects of fungal biology.…”

HbxB Is a Key Regulator for Stress Response and β-Glucan Biogenesis in Aspergillus nidulans

“…The process of asexual spore production in filamentous fungi has been mainly studied in the model fungus Aspergillus nidulans , as various genetic and molecular techniques have been developed [ 6 , 7 ]. A. nidulans reproduces primarily through asexual development and produces an asexual-specific structure called conidiophore bearing long chains of asexual spores termed as conidia [ 1 ].…”