A) A freshly cut sporophore of Jimgerdemannia lactiflua shows 'milking' reaction. (B) Zygosporangia of J. lactiflua budding from the junction of the two gametangia (arrow). Images by Gregory Bonito.

The genome of Jimgerdemannia lactiflua OSC 162217 was sequenced at Oregon State University where it was then assembled and annotated by Ying Chang (Chang et al., under revision).  JGI tools were used to automatically annotate predicted proteins. Please note that Ying does not maintain this copy of the genome and therefore it is not automatically updated.

Zygomycete fungi are an ancient and diverse group, whose evolutionary history and ecological associations remain poorly resolved. The NSF-funded ‘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 zygomycete fungi; 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, including Jimgerdemannia lactiflua.

Jimgerdemannia lactiflua OSC 162217 is a member of the family Endogonaceae (Mucoromycotina). Species in genus Jimgerdemannia are putatively ectomycorrhizal (EcM) with several species of Pinaceae. They usually form hypogeous sporophores whose zygospores differ from the ones of Endogone by pairing a large gametangium with a small one (Desirò et al., 2017). Together with some other members of Endogonaceae, they are the only known EcM fungi outside Dikarya, representing a different origin of EcM lifestyle. Members of Endogonaceae are also one of the few non-Dikarya lineages that produce “truffle-like” sporophores, making them an interesting system to explore the evolution of complex reproductive structures in fungi. All members of this family are difficult to maintain in culture. Taxa in the family Endogonaceae can host in their zygospores and mycelia Mycoplasma-related endobacteria (MRE) (Desirò et al., 2015): MRE were also detected in J. lactiflua OSC 162217 (Chang et al., under revision). Hypogeous sporophores of J. lactiflua OSC 162217 were collected under Pseudotsuga menziesii in Benton County, Oregon, USA.