Scientific Publications Database

Article Title: Leveraging single-cell genomics to expand the fungal tree of life
Authors: Ahrendt, Steven R.; Quandt, C. Alisha; Ciobanu, Doina; Clum, Alicia; Salamov, Asaf; Andreopoulos, Bill; Cheng, Jan-Fang; Woyke, Tanja; Pelin, Adrian; Henrissat, Bernard; Reynolds, Nicole K.; Benny, Gerald L.; Smith, Matthew E.; James, Timothy Y.; Grigoriev, Igor, V
Journal: NATURE MICROBIOLOGY Volume 3 Issue 12
Date of Publication:2018
Abstract:
Environmental DNA surveys reveal that most fungal diversity represents uncultured species. We sequenced the genomes of eight uncultured species across the fungal tree of life using a new single-cell genomics pipeline. We show that, despite a large variation in genome and gene space recovery from each single amplified genome (SAG), >= 90% can be recovered by combining multiple SAGs. SAGs provide robust placement for early-diverging lineages and infer a diploid ancestor of fungi. Early-diverging fungi share metabolic deficiencies and show unique gene expansions correlated with parasitism and unculturability. Single-cell genomics holds great promise in exploring fungal diversity, life cycles and metabolic potential.