• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.400-405
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• 2003

A gene (hpkA), encoding a histidine protein kinase homolog, has been identified in the upstream region of the espAB operon in Myxococcus xanthus. It encodes a 333 amino acid (35,952 Da) protein with a histidine protein kinase domain in the region from amino acid 90 to 317. Null mutations in the hpkA gene caused formation of loose irregular fruiting bodies, while wild-type strains developed tight hemispherical fruiting bodies under developmental conditions. Sporulation of the hpkA mutant was delayed by at least 12 h compared to that of the wild-type. It appeared that the hpkA mutation increased the expression of the espAB operon by more than 2-fold compared with the wild-type under developmental conditions. Expression of the hpkA gene was low under vegetative conditions, but was highly induced under developmental conditions.

• Mycobiology
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.155-157
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• 2009

Thirty-seven single spore isolates were obtained from specimens of ascomycetous fruiting bodies collected from Mt. Suri, Anyang in Korea. The fungal specimens and isolates were identified as Dumontinia tuberosa based on their morphological and cultural characteristics. This is the first record of this fungus occurring in Korea.

• Journal of Mushroom
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.15-20
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• 2004

Pleurotus ostreatus, the oyster mushroom, is one of the most widely cultivated and important edible mushrooms in the world. In order to study the developmental process of P. ostreatus and its regulatory mechanism, a new culturing method needs to be established for inducing the fruiting body and sporulation in the laboratory. In this study, we have examined whether the fruiting body of P. ostreatus can be formed on the plastic petri dish which are commonly used for cell culture in the laboratory. The strain was cultured on $60{\times}15mm$ plastic petri dish with potato dextrose agar media at $28^{\circ}C$ for mycelial growth and then at $18^{\circ}C$ for the formation of primordia and fruiting bodies within plant growth chamber. The development of primordia into fruiting bodies was achieved on cultured dishes under air ventilation. At the primordia stage, the normal formation of fruiting body was blocked by sealing the plastic dish with parafilm. The periods requiring for the formation of primordia and fruiting bodies were examined on the dish culture. About 96% and 76% of cultured samples formed primordia and fruiting bodies under the optimal conditions during ten weeks of culture, respectively. These culturing periods, however, were changed by the mechanical injury treatment to mycelia. As other factors affecting the fruiting body formation, the effects of light and cold shock have been tested. No fruiting formation was observed on the cultured dishes under the dark. The cold shock treatment by storing cultured dishes for one day at $4^{\circ}C$ did not have any significant effects in the fruiting body formation. Spores of fruiting bodies acquired from the petri dishes could be germinated on culture media at $28^{\circ}C$. These results suggest that the fruiting bodies of P. ostreatus can be formed on the experimental petri dish and this dish-culturing method is useful for understanding of the developmental process of P. ostreatus in the laboratory. Furthermore, the dish-culturing method is able to shorten the life cycle of P. ostreatus without requiring large area and expensive device.

• Journal of Mushroom
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2009

Thirty strains of genus Agrocybe which had been kept in National Institute of Horticultural and Herbal Science, were tested for the formation of fruiting body. Nineteen strains of collected genus Agrocybe were formed fruiting body at bottle culture of sawdust medium. Five strains (including ASI 19003) and thirteen strains (including ASI 19007) could be grouped as A. cylindracea and A. chaxingu. Although ASI 19008 showed the formation of fruiting body, morphological characteristics were significantly different from the two groups. Cultural period of ASI 19003 strain at sawdust substrates was 29 days and ASI 19007 train was 30 days in liquid spawn inoculation. The yield and quality of ASI 19003 strain was excellent in the spring, fall, and winter, whereas ASI 19007 strain was excellent in the summer. Accordingly, these cultivar might be contribute to farmers' income by stable year-round production if using the season-oriented strain.

• Mycobiology
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.272-277
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• 2011

Chemical mutagenesis of basidiospores of Hypsizygus marmoreus generated new mushroom strains. The basidospores were treated with methanesulfonate methylester, an alkylating agent, to yield 400 mutant monokaryotic mycelia. Twenty fast-growing mycelia were selected and mated each other by hyphal fusion. Fifty out of the 190 matings were successful (mating rate of 26.3%), judged by the formation of clamp connections. The mutant dikaryons were cultivated to investigate their morphological and cultivation characteristics. Mutant strains No. 3 and No. 5 showed 10% and 6% increase in fruiting body production, respectively. Eight mutant strains showed delayed and reduced primordia formation, resulting in the reduced production yield with prolonged cultivation period. The number of the fruiting bodies of mutant No. 31, which displayed reduced primordial formation, was only 15, compared to the parental number of 65. Another interesting phenotype was a fruiting body with a flattened stipe and pileus. Dikaryons generated by mating with the mutant spore No. 14 produced flat fruiting bodies. Further molecular biological studies will provide details of the mechanism. This work shows that the chemical mutagenesis approach is highly utilizable in the development of mushroom strains as well as in the generation of resources for molecular genetic studies.

• Mycobiology
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.171-182
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• 2009

Many aspergilli that belongs to ascomycetes have sexuality. In a homothallic or self-fertile fungus, a number of fruiting bodies or cleistothecia are formed in a thallus grown from a single haploid conidia or ascospores. Genome-sequencing project revealed that two mating genes (MAT) encoding the regulatory proteins that are necessary for controlling partner recognition in heterothallic fungi were conserved in most aspergilli. The MAT gene products in some self-fertile species were not required for recognition of mating partner at pheromone-signaling stage but required at later stages of sexual development. Various environmental factors such as nutritional status, culture conditions and several stresses, influence the decision or progression of sexual reproduction. A large number of genes are expected to be involved in sexual development of Emericella nidulans (anamorph: Aspergillus nidulans), a genetic and biological model organism in aspergilli. The sexual development process can be grouped into several development stages, including the decision of sexual reproductive cycle, mating process, growth of fruiting body, karyogamy followed by meiosis, and sporulation process. Complicated regulatory networks, such as signal transduction pathways and gene expression controls, may work in each stage and stage-to-stage linkages. In this review, the components joining in the regulatory pathways of sexual development, although they constitute only a small part of the whole regulatory networks, are briefly mentioned. Some of them control sexual development positively and some do negatively. Regarding the difficulties for studying sexual differentiation compare to asexual one, recent progresses in molecular genetics of E. nidulans enlarge the boundaries of understanding sexual development in the non-fertile species as well as in fertile fungi.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.34-40
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• 2003

Aspergillus nidulans, a homothalic ascomycete, has a complete sexual reproductive cycle as well as an asexual one. Both sexual and asexual development are known to be genetically programmed, but are also strongly affected by environmental factors including nutrients, light, temperature and osmolarity. We have examined these factors to define favored conditions for fruiting body (cleistothecium) formation. In general, fruiting body formation was enhanced where carbon and nitrogen sources were sufficient. Limitation of C-source caused predominant asexual development while inhibiting sexual development. When higher concentrations of glucose were supplied, more cleistothecia were formed. Other carbon sources including lactose, galactose and glycerol made the fungus develop cleistothecia very well, whereas acetate caused asexual sporulation only. Organic nitrogen sources like casein hydrolysate and glycine, and an increase in nitrate or ammonium concentration also enhanced sexual development. In addition to nutrient effects, low levels of aerobic respiration, caused either by platesealing or treatment with various chemicals, favored sexual development. Carbon limitation, light exposure and a high concentration of salts promoted asexual development preferentially, suggesting that stress conditions may drive the cell to develop asexual sporulation while comfortable and wellnourished growth conditions favored sexual development.

• 한국균학회소식:학술대회논문집
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• 2014.05a
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• pp.39-39
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• 2014

In a homothallic filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans, sexual and asexual developments are largely affected by the genetic and environmental factors. To regulate the complex subsets of genes involved in the developmental processes accurately, tight regulations of transcription factors are required. The forkhead type transcription factors are the class of regulators that function in a broad spectrum of cellular and developmental processes in many species from yeast to human. Here, we identified the fkhA and fkhB genes that encode a conserved forkhead transcription factors. The fkhA deletion resulted in the complete loss of fruiting body formation under all conditions favoring sexual development, suggesting that the fkhA gene is required for sexual development in A. nidulans. Overexpression of fkhA resulted in enhanced formation of fruiting bodies under induction condition not only in the normal condition but also in the condition of presence of 0.6 M KCl, which strongly inhibits sexual development. To know the function of the fkhB gene, we also generated fkhB knock-out strain in A. nidulans. Deletion of fkhB resulted in abnormal conidiophore formation under standard conditions and delayed sexual development process, suggesting that the fkhB gene plays an important role in conidiophore morphogenesis Taken together, these results suggest that the fkhA gene is necessary and sufficient for regulating sexual development and the fkhB gene is a transcription factor related in asexual developmental process in A. nidulans.

• Journal of Mushroom
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.275-283
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• 2019

Sparassis latifolia is a fungus abundant in β-glucan and amino acids and is highly valued as a medicinal mushroom. Among amino acids, γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is a free amino acid and has biological effects, such as increase/decrease of hypertension, improvement of cerebral blood flow, and prevention of dementia. In this study, biological elicitors were used to increase bioactive substances as a biofortification method. Sodium alginate extracted from seaweed (Sargassum horneri, Sargassum fulvellum, Sargassum fusiforme) were used as the elicitor. The levels of β-glucan and GABA in the mycelium and fruiting body grown by adding the elicitor to the medium were investigated. Addition of sodium alginate positively affected GABA production and negatively affected the β-glucan production in these fungi. Sodium alginates extracted from S. fulvellum induced the highest increase in GABA in the mycelium and fruiting bodies. Moreover, we investigated the effects of the extracts from mycelium and fruiting bodies on dendrite development in primary cortical neurons. We found that the extract from the fruiting bodies of sodium alginate treated fungi with increased levels of GABA inhibited the dendrite outgrowth of excitatory neurons, but not inhibitory neurons.

• 한국균학회소식:학술대회논문집
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• 2015.11a
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• pp.35-35
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• 2015

Pleurotus eryngii has recently become a major cultivated mushroom; it uses tetrapolar heterothallism as a part of its reproductive process. Sexual development progresses only when the A and B mating types are compatible. Such mating incompatibility occasionally limits the efficiency of breeding programs in which crossing within loci-shared strains or backcrossing strategies are employed. Therefore, understanding the mating system in edible mushroom fungi will help provide a short cut in the development of new strains. We isolated and identified pheromone and receptor genes in the B3 locus of P. eryngii and performed a functional analysis of the genes in the mating process by transformation. A genomic DNA library was constructed to map the entire mating-type locus. The B3 locus was found to contain four pheromone precursor genes and four receptor genes. Remarkably, receptor PESTE3.3.1 has just 34 amino acid residues in its C-terminal cytoplasmic region; therefore, it seems likely to be a receptor-like gene. Real-time quantitative RT-PCR (real-time qRT-PCR) revealed that most pheromone and receptor genes showed significantly higher expression in monokaryotic cells than dikaryotic cells. The pheromone genes PEphb3.1 and PEphb3.3 and the receptor gene PESTE3.3.1 were transformed into P5 (A3B4). The transformants were mated with a tester strain (A4B4), and the progeny showed clamp connections and a normal fruiting body, which indicates the proposed role of these genes in mating and fruiting processes. This result also confirms that PESTE3.3.1 is a receptor gene. In this study, we identified pheromone and receptor genes in the B3 locus of P. eryngii and found that some of those genes appear to play a role in the mating and fruiting processes. These results might help elucidate the mechanism of fruiting differentiation and improve breeding efficiency.