Brown rot, S. lacrymans, is a wood-destroying fungus found in Himalayan forests where it destroys broad-leaved and conifer stumps. A recently evolved strain of this fungus is a dreadful colonizer of timber in wooden buildings and ships, attacking roof structures, stairs, etc. When the fungus fruiting body is visible, it is already too late. It develops in darkness and low ventilation, which renders its early detection difficult. Decay appears in the last stages of deterioration; damage is then considerable, not to say irreversible.
In the framework of a large project of sequencing around fifty genomes of forest fungi, led by the Joint Genome Institute, a team from INRA/University of Nancy in association with teams from CNRS/University of Aix-Marseille 1&2 and from Swansea University and the University of Oxford, has characterized the S. lacrymans genomic sequence. Comparing gene repertoires from various wood decay, pathogenic and symbiotic fungi, researchers were able to determine how S. lacrymans is able to efficiently break down lignin and cellulose. Many wood-destroying fungi rely on a large arsenal of hydrolytic enzymes to degrade wood, whereas brown rots, such as S. lacrymans, produce a large quantity of free hydroxyl radicals to depolymerize lignin in the early stages of wood colonization, opening the way for an efficient cellulose breakdown.
These results provide a better understanding of the role of forest fungi in the carbon cycling in forest ecosystems. Now that the mechanisms involved in wood decay are better characterized, new strategies to defend against dry rot can be designed. These results may also benefit the bioenergy industry, since wood polymer degradation is an important process in producing biofuel.
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Daniel C. Eastwood1, Dimitrios Floudas2, Manfred Binder2, Andrzej Majcherczyk3, Patrick Schneider4, Andrea Aerts5, Fred O. Asiegbu6, Scott E. Baker7, Kerrie Barry5, Mika Bendiksby8, Melanie Blumentritt9, Pedro M. Coutinho10, Dan Cullen11, Ronald P. de Vries12, Allen Gathman13, Barry Goodell9,14, Bernard Henrissat10, Katarina Ihrmark15, Hävard Kauserud16, Annegret Kohler17, Kurt LaButti5, Alla Lapidus5, José L. Lavin18, Yong-Hwan Lee19, Erika Lindquist5, Walt Lilly13, Susan Lucas5, Emmanuelle Morin17, Claude Murat17, José A. Oguiza18, Jongsun Park19, Antonio G. Pisabarro18, Robert Riley5, Anna Rosling15, Asaf Salamov5, Olaf Schmidt20, Jeremy Schmutz5, Inger Skrede16, Jan Stenlid15, Ad Wiebenga12, Xinfeng Xie9, Ursula Kües3, David S. Hibbett2, Dirk Hoffmeister4, Nils Högberg15, Francis Martin17, Igor V. Grigoriev5, Sarah C. Watkinson21
1 College of Science, University of Swansea, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, UK
2 Biology Department, Clark University, Worcester, MA 01610, USA
3 Georg-August-University Göttingen, Büsgen-Institute, Büsgenweg 2, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
4 Friedrich-Schiller-Universität, Hans-Knöll-Institute, Beutenbergstrasse 11a, 07745 Jena, Germany
5 US Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, Walnut Creek, CA, USA
6 Department of Forest Sciences, Box 27, FI-00014, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
7 Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 902 Battelle Boulevard, P.O. Box 999, MSIN P8-60, Richland, WA 99352. USA.
8 Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, PO Box 1172, Blindern, NO-0138, Norway.
9 Wood Science and Technology, University of Maine, Orono, ME, USA.
10 UMR 6098 CNRS-Universités Aix-Marseille I& II, 13288 Marseille Cedex 9, France
11 Forest Products Laboratory, Madison, WI 53726, USA
12 CBS-KNAW Fungal Biodiversity Centre, Uppsalalaan 8, 3584 CT Utrecht, The Netherlands
13 Department of Biology, Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau, MO, USA
14 Department of Wood Science and Forest Products, 230 Cheatham Hall, Virginia Tech. Blacksburg, VA. USA 24061
15 Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, S-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden
16 Department of Biology, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1066 Blindern, N-0316 Oslo, Norway
17 UMR 1136, INRA-Nancy Université, Interactions Arbres/Microorganismes, INRANancy, 54280 Champenoux, France
18 Public University of Navarre, 31006 Pamplona, Spain
19 Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Seoul National University, Seoul, 151*921.
20 University of Hamburg, Leuschnerstr. 91, D-21031 Hamburg, Germany
21 Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3RB. UK
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