DOE Joint Genome Institute

  • COVID-19
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Our Science
    • DOE Mission Areas
    • Bioenergy Research Centers
    • Science Programs
    • Science Highlights
    • Scientists
    Data yielded from RIViT-seq increased the number of sigma factor-gene pairs confirmed in Streptomyces coelicolor from 209 to 399. Here, grey arrows denote previously known regulation and red arrows are regulation identified by RIViT-seq; orange nodes mark sigma factors while gray nodes mark other genes. (Otani, H., Mouncey, N.J. Nat Commun 13, 3502 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-31191-w)
    Streamlining Regulon Identification in Bacteria
    Regulons are a group of genes that can be turned on or off by the same regulatory protein. RIViT-seq technology could speed up associating transcription factors with their target genes.

    More

    (PXFuel)
    Designer DNA: JGI Helps Users Blaze New Biosynthetic Pathways
    In a special issue of the journal Synthetic Biology, JGI scientific users share how they’ve worked with the JGI DNA Synthesis Science Program and what they’ve discovered through their collaborations.

    More

    A genetic element that generates targeted mutations, called diversity-generating retroelements (DGRs), are found in viruses, as well as bacteria and archaea. Most DGRs found in viruses appear to be in their tail fibers. These tail fibers – signified in the cartoon by the blue virus’ downward pointing ‘arms’— allow the virus to attach to one cell type (red), but not the other (purple). DGRs mutate these ‘arms,’ giving the virus opportunities to switch to different prey, like the purple cell. (Courtesy of Blair Paul)
    A Natural Mechanism Can Turbocharge Viral Evolution
    A team has discovered that diversity generating retroelements (DGRs) are not only widespread, but also surprisingly active. In viruses, DGRs appear to generate diversity quickly, allowing these viruses to target new microbial prey.

    More

  • Our Projects
    • Search JGI Projects
    • DOE Metrics/Statistics
    • Approved User Proposals
    • Legacy Projects
    Photograph of a stream of diatoms beneath Arctic sea ice.
    Polar Phytoplankton Need Zinc to Cope with the Cold
    As part of a long-term collaboration with the JGI Algal Program, researchers studying function and activity of phytoplankton genes in polar waters have found that these algae rely on dissolved zinc to photosynthesize.

    More

    This data image shows the monthly average sea surface temperature for May 2015. Between 2013 and 2016, a large mass of unusually warm ocean water--nicknamed the blob--dominated the North Pacific, indicated here by red, pink, and yellow colors signifying temperatures as much as three degrees Celsius (five degrees Fahrenheit) higher than average. Data are from the NASA Multi-scale Ultra-high Resolution Sea Surface Temperature (MUR SST) Analysis product. (Courtesy NASA Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center)
    When “The Blob” Made It Hotter Under the Water
    Researchers tracked the impact of a large-scale heatwave event in the ocean known as “The Blob” as part of an approved proposal through the Community Science Program.

    More

    A plantation of poplar trees. (David Gilbert)
    Genome Insider podcast: THE Bioenergy Tree
    The US Department of Energy’s favorite tree is poplar. In this episode, hear from ORNL scientists who have uncovered remarkable genetic secrets that bring us closer to making poplar an economical and sustainable source of energy and materials.

    More

  • Data & Tools
    • IMG
    • Data Portal
    • MycoCosm
    • PhycoCosm
    • Phytozome
    • GOLD
    HPCwire Editor's Choice Award (logo crop) for Best Use of HPC in the Life Sciences
    JGI Part of Berkeley Lab Team Awarded Best Use of HPC in Life Sciences
    The HPCwire Editors Choice Award for Best Use of HPC in Life Sciences went to the Berkeley Lab team comprised of JGI and ExaBiome Project team, supported by the DOE Exascale Computing Project for MetaHipMer, an end-to-end genome assembler that supports “an unprecedented assembly of environmental microbiomes.”

    More

    With a common set of "baseline metadata," JGI users can more easily access public data sets. (Steve Wilson)
    A User-Centered Approach to Accessing JGI Data
    Reflecting a structural shift in data access, the JGI Data Portal offers a way for users to more easily access public data sets through a common set of metadata.

    More

    Phytozome portal collage
    A More Intuitive Phytozome Interface
    Phytozome v13 now hosts upwards of 250 plant genomes and provides users with the genome browsers, gene pages, search, BLAST and BioMart data warehouse interfaces they have come to rely on, with a more intuitive interface.

    More

  • User Programs
    • Calls for Proposals
    • Special Initiatives & Programs
    • Product Offerings
    • User Support
    • Policies
    • Submit a Proposal
    screencap from Amundson and Wilkins subsurface microbiome video
    Digging into Microbial Ecosystems Deep Underground
    JGI users and microbiome researchers at Colorado State University have many questions about the microbial communities deep underground, including the role viral infection may play in other natural ecosystems.

    Read more

    Yeast strains engineered for the biochemical conversion of glucose to value-added products are limited in chemical output due to growth and viability constraints. Cell extracts provide an alternative format for chemical synthesis in the absence of cell growth by isolating the soluble components of lysed cells. By separating the production of enzymes (during growth) and the biochemical production process (in cell-free reactions), this framework enables biosynthesis of diverse chemical products at volumetric productivities greater than the source strains. (Blake Rasor)
    Boosting Small Molecule Production in Super “Soup”
    Researchers supported through the Emerging Technologies Opportunity Program describe a two-pronged approach that starts with engineered yeast cells but then moves out of the cell structure into a cell-free system.

    More

    These bright green spots are fluorescently labelled bacteria from soil collected from the surface of plant roots. For reference, the scale bar at bottom right is 10 micrometers long. (Rhona Stuart)
    A Powerful Technique to Study Microbes, Now Easier
    In JGI's Genome Insider podcast: LLNL biologist Jennifer Pett-Ridge collaborated with JGI scientists through the Emerging Technologies Opportunity Program to semi-automate experiments that measure microbial activity in soil.

    More

  • News & Publications
    • News
    • Blog
    • Podcasts
    • Webinars
    • Publications
    • Newsletter
    • Logos and Templates
    • Photos
    A view of the mangroves from which the giant bacteria were sampled in Guadeloupe. (Hugo Bret)
    Giant Bacteria Found in Guadeloupe Mangroves Challenge Traditional Concepts
    Harnessing JGI and Berkeley Lab resources, researchers characterized a giant - 5,000 times bigger than most bacteria - filamentous bacterium discovered in the Caribbean mangroves.

    More

    In their approved proposal, Frederick Colwell of Oregon State University and colleagues are interested in the microbial communities that live on Alaska’s glacially dominated Copper River Delta. They’re looking at how the microbes in these high latitude wetlands, such as the Copper River Delta wetland pond shown here, cycle carbon. (Courtesy of Rick Colwell)
    Monitoring Inter-Organism Interactions Within Ecosystems
    Many of the proposals approved through JGI's annual Community Science Program call focus on harnessing genomics to developing sustainable resources for biofuels and bioproducts.

    More

    Coloring the water, the algae Phaeocystis blooms off the side of the sampling vessel, Polarstern, in the temperate region of the North Atlantic. (Katrin Schmidt)
    Climate Change Threatens Base of Polar Oceans’ Bountiful Food Webs
    As warm-adapted microbes edge polewards, they’d oust resident tiny algae. It's a trend that threatens to destabilize the delicate marine food web and change the oceans as we know them.

    More

Our Science
Home › Science Highlights › Of Mutualism and Lipid Metabolism in Fungi

December 19, 2016

Of Mutualism and Lipid Metabolism in Fungi

Novel mechanism in bacterial-fungal symbiosis could have biodiesel production applications

Hyphae and asexual sporangia of Rhizopus microsporus (photo by Stephen Mondo). Inset shows a hypha with YFP-labeled Burkholderia endobacteria in green and DAPI-stained fungal nuclei in blue; scale bar, 5 um (photo by Olga Lastovetsky)

Hyphae and asexual sporangia of Rhizopus microsporus (photo by Stephen Mondo). Inset shows a hypha with YFP-labeled Burkholderia endobacteria in green and DAPI-stained fungal nuclei in blue; scale bar, 5 um (photo by Olga Lastovetsky)

The Science

To answer the challenge of producing renewable, sustainable alternative fuels, researchers aren’t just looking at developing candidate bioenergy crops but are also reviewing other natural sources of energy-dense oils such as fungi. To learn more about how bacteria interact with fungi in a symbiotic relationship to support the biochemistries that could contribute to the development of alternate fuel sources, Cornell and DOE JGI researchers used a model bacterial-fungal system to reveal the mechanism for lipid production in oil-producing or oleaginous fungi.

The Impact

Fungi are most often found in complex communities that include bacteria among other members. Understanding how fungal-bacterial interactions influence lipid production in Mucoromycotina fungi offers insights into how these fungi might be harnessed for biodiesel production.

Summary

The widespread use of antimicrobials has led to the perception that fungi and bacteria are antagonists, but this is not always true. In a Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences paper published online December 12, 2016, researchers at Cornell University and the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI), a national user facility, reported on the mechanisms influencing the mutualistic relationship between the fungal plant pathogen Rhizopus microsporus and a Burkholderia endosymbiont. Rhizopus is a plant pathogen of crops including rice, sunflower, and maize, and it relies on the toxin produced by the endosymbiont bacteria. Their symbiotic relationship was discovered in 2005, and researchers expect more examples of fungal-bacterial mutualisms to be found now that they are being actively sought out. The Cornell team cultivated the fungi and isolated the endobacteria while the DOE JGI team sequenced, assembled and annotated the genomes of the host and non-host genomes as part of the DOE JGI’s 1000 Fungal Genomes project and other DOE JGI Community Science Projects. The results indicate that the transition between symbiosis and antagonism between the bacteria and their fungal host is driven by a novel mechanism involving fungal lipid metabolism. “When lipid metabolism in the fungus is triggered and phosphatidic acid (PA)-producing enzymes are activated, the fungus and bacteria act as mutualists. When the PA-producing enzymes are inhibited, the bacteria and fungi act as antagonists,” said Cornell’s Teresa Pawlowska and her graduate student Olga Lastovetsky. This work highlights the complicated nature of fungal-bacterial relationships that can oscillate between mutualistic and antagonistic. The work also lends bioenergy researchers insight into lipid metabolism in an oil-producing fungus, and how this can influence the nature of their interactions.

Contacts

Daniel Drell, Ph.D.
Program Manager
Biological Systems Sciences Division
Office of Biological and Environmental Research
Office of Science, US Department of Energy
daniel.drell@science.doe.gov

Igor Grigoriev
Fungal Genomics Head
DOE Joint Genome Institute
ivgrigoriev@lbl.gov

Funding

  • DOE Office of Science
  • National Science Foundation

Publications

  • Lastovetsky OA et al. Lipid metabolic changes in an early divergent fungus govern the establishment of a mutualistic symbiosis with endobacteria. Proc Nat Sci Acad. 2016 Dec 12. doi:10.1073/pnas.1615148113 [Epub ahead online]

Related Links

  • http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2016/12/08/1615148113
  • http://jgi.doe.gov/our-science/science-programs/fungal-genomics/1000-fungal-genomes/
  • http://genome.jgi.doe.gov/mucoromycotina/mucoromycotina.info.html

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: Science Highlights

More topics:

  • COVID-19 Status
  • News
  • Science Highlights
  • Blog
  • Webinars
  • CSP Plans
  • Featured Profiles

Related Content:

Soil virus offers insight into maintaining microorganisms

Silver age of GOLD introduces new features

Abstract image of gold lights and squares against a black backdrop

Virus Discoveries that Keep Getting Bigger

And illustration of a giant virus in purple and blue tones.

Model fern reveals insight into DNA thievery in ferns

A green fern against a black backdrop

Understanding Wildfire Recovery, Starting in Soil

A photograph of the forest floor, covered in pine needles, with burned trees in the background.

Extracting the Secrets of Secondary Metabolites

A graphic flowchart showing how CRAGE and CRISPR work together
  • Careers
  • Contact Us
  • Events
  • User Meeting
  • MGM Workshops
  • Internal
  • Disclaimer
  • Credits
  • Policies
  • Emergency Info
  • Accessibility / Section 508 Statement
  • Flickr
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab Biosciences Area
A project of the US Department of Energy, Office of Science

JGI is a DOE Office of Science User Facility managed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

© 1997-2023 The Regents of the University of California