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The cultivation of Auricularia heimuer, a species of edible mushroom, heavily relies on the availability of wood resources serving as substrate for the growth of the species. To ensure the sustainable development of the A. heimuer industry and optimize the utilization of corncob as a substrate, this study sought to investigate the potential use of corncob as a substrate for the cultivation of A. heimuer. The purpose of this study was to explore the utilization of corncob lignocellulose by A. heimuer at the mycelium, primordium, and fruiting stages, by specifically examining the expression profiles of both carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZymes) and the transcriptome of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) relevant to corncob biomass degradation. The results revealed 10,979, 10,630, and 11,061 DEGs at the mycelium, primordium, and fruiting stages, respectively, while 639 DGEs were identified as carbohydrate-active enzymes. Of particular interest were 46 differentially expressed CAZymes genes that were associated directly with lignocellulose degradation. Furthermore, the study found that A. heimuer exhibited adaptive changes that enabled it to effectively utilize the cellulose present in the corncob. These changes were observed primarily at the primordium and fruiting stages. Key genes involved in lignocellulose degradation were also identified, including g6952, g8349, g12487, and g2976 at the mycelium stage, g5775, g2857, g3018, and g11016 at the primordium stage, and g10290, g2857, g12385, g7656, and g8953 at the fruiting stage. This study found that lytic polysaccharide monooxygenase (LPMO) played a crucial role in the degradation of corncob cellulose, further highlighting the complexity of the molecular mechanisms involved in the degradation of lignocellulose biomass by A. heimuer. The study sheds light on the molecular mechanisms underlying the ability of A. heimuer to degrade corncob biomass, with implications for the efficient utilization of lignocellulose resources. The findings from this study may facilitate the development of innovative biotechnologies for the transformation of corncob biomass into useful products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Auricularia cornea, jelly mushroom, is a popular ingredient of traditional Chinese cuisine. This study aimed at evaluating the growth, yield, biological efficiency, total phenolic and flavonoid contents, the antioxidant activity, elemental composition, and molecular structure of the wild and domesticated strain Ac24 and the commercially cultivated edible mushroom A. cornea strains Ac1, Ac3 and Ac15. Based on the weight of the fresh fruiting bodies of A. cornea strains, the maximum yield was obtained from commercial strain Ac1 (237.10 g), followed by Ac3 (224.47 g), Ac15 (158 g) and Ac24 (132.37 g), while the biological efficiency range of A. cornea strains was 52.94–94.84%, with significant differences among the A. cornea strains. Our results revealed that Ac24 contained the highest phenolic content (20.10 mg GAE · g−1), while the highest flavonoid content was found in Ac1 (35.13 mg CE · g−1). The maximum mineral contents and the strains were as follows: copper (7.2 mg · kg−1) and zinc (310 mg · kg−1) in Ac1, manganese (788 mg · kg−1) in Ac3 and iron (310 mg · kg−1) in Ac24. DPPH assay found maximum antioxidant activity in Ac24 (IC50 0.233 mg TX · mL−1), FRAP (591 mg TX · g−1) in Ac15, and erythrocyte haemolysis in Ac24. SEM-EDX and FTIR analyses verified the differences among A. cornea strains. The results revealed that wild, domesticated A. cornea strain Ac24 is a promising dietary source of natural antioxidants and is of high nutritional value, compared to commercially cultivated strains.

Auricularia heimuer is among China's most important edible mushrooms and is rich in gum. With the improvement of people's quality of life, demand is increasing for high-quality and good-tasting food; thus, the texture of A. heimuer is the focus of increasing attention. In this study, we added extra markers to a previously constructed genetic linkage map to generate a high-density genetic linkage map of A. heimuer, resolved the attributes of substrate quality-related traits, and performed quantitative trait locus (QTL) localization. The original genetic linkage map was improved by adding two new linkage groups, merging seven linkage groups into three linkage groups, and increasing the average linkage distance and total linkage estimated length. We anchored the 142 scaffolds of the genome to the improved genetic linkage map. In total, 15 significant QTLs controlling four quality-related traits were detected. Gumminess and chewiness, and cohesiveness and resilience, were linked. Three genes controlled cohesiveness and resilience; one gene controlled gumminess and chewiness. In conclusion, this study lays the foundation for gene localization and chromosome assembly in A. heimuer, elucidation of the mechanism of substrate quality-related trait formation, and provides a basis for precision breeding of A. heimuer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Auricularia heimuer is one of the most popular edible fungi in China. It has high economic and medicinal value. The complete mitochondrial genome of A. heimuer is 40586 bp. It contains 48 genes, including 25 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNA genes, and 1 gene coding RNase P RNA. The G + C content is 37.92%. The phylogenetic relationships were constructed on the Bayesian inference method. It showed that A. heimuer was in distance to other species of Russulales, Polyporales, and Agaricales. The complete genome sequence of A. heimuer will provide a useful resource for the genetic and systematics studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Owing to its great market potential for food and health care, white Auricularia cornea , a rare edible fungus, has received increased attention in recent years. This study presents a high-quality genome assembly of A. cornea and multi-omics analysis of its pigment synthesis pathway. Continuous Long Reads libraries, combined with Hi-C-assisted assembly were used to assemble of white A. cornea . Based on this data, we analyzed the transcriptome and metabolome of purple and white strains during the mycelium, primordium, and fruiting body stages. Finally, we obtained the genome of A.cornea assembled from 13 clusters. Comparative and evolutionary analysis suggests that A.cornea is more closely related to Auricularia subglabra than to Auricularia heimuer . The divergence of white/purple A.cornea occurred approximately 40,000 years ago, and there were numerous inversions and translocations between homologous regions of the two genomes. Purple strain synthesized pigment via the shikimate pathway. The pigment in the fruiting body of A. cornea was γ-glutaminyl-3,4-dihydroxy-benzoate. During pigment synthesis, α-D-glucose-1P, citrate, 2-Oxoglutarate, and glutamate were four important intermediate metabolites, whereas polyphenol oxidase and other 20 enzyme genes were the key enzymes. This study sheds light on the genetic blueprint and evolutionary history of the white A.cornea genome, revealing the mechanism of pigment synthesis in A.cornea . It has important theoretical and practical implications for understanding the evolution of basidiomycetes, molecular breeding of white A.cornea , and deciphering the genetic regulations of edible fungi. Additionally, it provides valuable insights for the study of phenotypic traits in other edible fungi., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Ma, Lu, Yao, Fang, Wang, Meng, Shao, Sun and Zhang.)

Stripe rust caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici is one of the most destructive diseases of wheat. Identifying novel resistance genes applicable for developing disease-resistant cultivars is important for the sustainable control of wheat stripe rust. Chinese wheat landrace 'Xiaohemai' ('XHM') is an elite germplasm line with all-stage resistance (ASR) effective against predominant Chinese P. striiformis f. sp. tritici races. In this study, we performed a bulked segregant analysis coupled with exome capture sequencing (BSE-seq) to identify a candidate genomic region strongly associated with stripe rust resistance on chromosome 1AL in 173 F 2:3 lines derived from the cross 'XHM' × 'Avocet S'. The gene, designated as YrXH-1AL , was validated by a conventional quantitative trait locus analysis using newly developed Kompetitive allele-specific PCR (KASP) markers, explaining up to 48.50% of the phenotypic variance. By testing a secondary mapping population comprising 144 lines from the same cross at the seedling stage with prevalent P. striiformis f. sp. tritici race CYR34, YrXH-1AL was identified as a single Mendelian factor in a 1.5-cM interval flanked by KASP markers KP1A_484.33 and KP1A_490.09 . This region corresponded to a 5.76-Mb genomic interval on 'Chinese Spring' chromosome 1AL. Furthermore, two cosegregating KASP markers showed high polymorphisms among 130 Chinese wheat cultivars and could be used for marker-assisted selection. Because no other Yr genes for ASR that originated from common wheat have been detected on chromosome 1AL, YrXH-1AL is likely a novel gene that can be incorporated into modern breeding materials to develop wheat cultivars with enhanced stripe rust resistance.

Auricularia heimuer is one of the most popular edible fungi in China. It has high economic and medicinal value. The complete mitochondrial genome of A. heimuer is 40586 bp. It contains 48 genes, including 25 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNA genes, and 1 gene coding RNase P RNA. The G + C content is 37.92%. The phylogenetic relationships were constructed on the Bayesian inference method. It showed that A. heimuer was in distance to other species of Russulales, Polyporales, and Agaricales. The complete genome sequence of A. heimuer will provide a useful resource for the genetic and systematics studies., Competing Interests: No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors., (© 2019 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.)