Microcystins (MCs) produced by Microcystis aeruginosa are harmful to animal and human health, and there is currently no effective method for their removal. Therefore, the development of biological approaches that inhibit cyanobacteria and remove MCs is needed. We identified strain MB1, confirmed as Morchella, using morphological and mole-cular evolution methods. To assess the impact of strain MB1 on M. aeruginosa, we conducted an experiment in which we inoculated M. aeruginosa with Morchella strain MB1. After their co-cultivation for 4‍ ‍d, the inoculation with 0.9696‍ ‍g MB1 completely inhibited and removed M. aeruginosa while concurrently removing up to 95% of the MC content. Moreover, within 3‍ ‍d of their co-cultivation, MB1 removed more than 50% of nitrogen and phosphorus from the M. aeruginosa solution. Therefore, the development of effective biological techniques for MC removal is paramount in safeguarding both the environment and human well-being. We herein successfully isolated MB1 from its natural habitat. This strain effectively inhibited and removed M. aeruginosa and also reduced the content of nitrogen and phosphorus in the M. aeruginosa solution. Most importantly, it exhibited a robust capability to eliminate MCs. The present results offer a new method and technical reference for mitigating harmful algal blooms.

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[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.1078663.].

The cultivation of true morels (Morchella spp., Morchellaceae, Ascomycota) has rapidly expanded in recent years, especially in China. Red stipe is a symptom wherein the stipe of morel fruiting bodies becomes red-gray, resulting in the gradual death of the affected fruiting bodies. The impact of red-stipe symptom occurrence on the development and nutritional quality of morel fruiting bodies remains unclear. Herein, morel ascocarps with the red-stipe symptom (R) and normal (N), artificially cultivated in the Fujian Province of China, were selected for the transcriptome and metabolome analysis to study the physiological and biochemical responses of morel fruiting bodies to the red-stipe symptom. Transcriptome data revealed several differentially expressed genes between the R and N groups significantly enriched in the tyrosine, riboflavin, and glycerophospholipid metabolism pathways. Similarly, the differentially accumulated metabolites were mainly assigned to metabolic pathways, including tyrosine, the biosynthesis of plant secondary metabolites, and the biosynthesis of amino acids. Moreover, the transcriptome and metabolome data combination revealed that tyrosine metabolism was the most enriched pathway, which was followed by ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transport, alanine, aspartate, and glutamate metabolism. Overall, the integration of transcriptomic and metabolomic data of M. sextelata affected by red-stipe symptoms identified several important genes, metabolites, and pathways. These findings further improve our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the red-stipe symptom development of M. sextelata and provide new insights into how to optimize its cultivation methods.

UNASSIGNED: Morchella has become a research hotspot because of its wide distribution, delicious taste, and phenotypic plasticity. The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau subkingdoms (QTPs) are known as the cradle of Ice age biodiversity. However, the diversity of Morchella in the QTPs has been poorly investigated, especially in phylogenetic diversity, origin, and biogeography.
UNASSIGNED: The genealogical concordance phylogenetic species recognition (GCPSR, based on Bayesian evolutionary analysis using sequences from the internal transcribed spacer (ITS), nuclear large subunit rDNA (nrLSU), translation elongation factor 1-α (EF1-α), and the largest and second largest subunits of RNA polymerase II (RPB1 and RPB2)), differentiation time estimation, and ancestral region reconstruction were used to infer Morchella\'s phylogenetic relationships and historical biogeography in the QTPs.
UNASSIGNED: Firstly, a total of 18 Morchella phylogenetic species are recognized in the QTPs, including 10 Elata clades and 8 Esculenta clades of 216 individuals Secondly, the divergences of the 18 phylogenetic species were 50.24-4.20 Mya (Eocene-Pliocene), which was closely related to the geological activities in the QTPs. Furthermore, the ancestor of Morchella probably originated in the Northern regions (Qilian Shan, Elata cade) and southwestern regions (Shangri-La, Esculenta clade) of QTPs and might have migrated from North America (Rufobrunnea clade) via Beringian Land Bridge (BLB) and Long-Distance Dispersal (LDD) expansions during the Late Cretaceous. Moreover, as the cradle of species origin and diversity, the fungi species in the QTPs have spread out and diffused to Eurasia and South Africa starting in the Paleogene Period.
UNASSIGNED: This is the first report that Esculenta and Elata clade of Morchella originated from the QTPs because of orogenic, and rapid differentiation of fungi is strongly linked to geological uplift movement and refuge in marginal areas of the QTPs. Our findings contribute to increasing the diversity of Morchella and offer more evidence for the origin theory of the QTPs.

True morels (Morchella) are a well-known edible fungi, with economically and medicinally important values. However, molecular identification and species taxonomy of the genus Morchella have long been controversial, due to numerous intermediate morphologies among species. In this study, we determined the identification efficiency of DNA barcoding and species classification of 260 individuals from 45 Morchella species, on the basis of multiple nuclear DNA markers. DNA barcoding analysis showed that the individual DNA fragment has a lower resolution of species identification than that of combined multiple DNA markers. ITS showed the highest level of species discrimination among the individual genetic markers. Interestingly, the combined DNA markers significantly increased the resolution of species identification. A combination of four DNA genes (EF1-α, RPB1, RPB2 and ITS) showed a higher species delimitation than that any combination of two or three markers. Phylogenetic analysis suggested that the species in genus Morchella could have been divided into two large genetic clades, the Elata Clade and Esculenta Clade lineages. The two lineages divided approximately 133.11 Mya [95% HPD interval: 82.77-197.95] in the early Cretaceous period. However, some phylogenetic species of Morchella showed inconsistent evolutionary relationships with the traditional morphological classifications, which may have resulted from incomplete lineage sorting and/or introgressive hybridization among species. These findings demonstrate that the interspecific gene introgression may have affected the species identification of true morels, and that the combined DNA markers significantly improve the resolution of species discrimination.

Artificial cultivation of Morchella sextelata and other morels is expanding in China, but continuous cropping reduces Morchella for unknown reasons. Here, we investigated soil that had been used or not used for M. sextelata cultivation for 0, 1, and 2 years. We found that the continuous cropping of M. sextelata substantially reduced the pH and the nutrient content of the hyphosphere soil and increased sclerotia formation by M. sextelata. Changes in the structure of bacterial and fungal communities were associated with levels of available nitrogen (N) and phosphorus in the soil. With continuous cropping, the richness and diversity of fungal and bacterial communities increased, but the abundance of Bacillus and Lactobacillus decreased and the abundance of pathogenic fungi increased. FAPROTAX analysis indicated that N cycle functions were enriched more with than without continuous cultivation, and that enrichment of N cycle and sulfate respiration functions was higher in the second than in the first year of cultivation. FunGuild analysis indicated that the functions related to pathotrophs and wood saprotrophs were enriched by M. sextelata cultivation. Overall, the results suggest that continuous cropping may reduce M. sextelata production by acidifying the soil and increasing the abundance of pathogenic fungi. Additional research is needed to determine whether increases in the abundance of pathogenic fungi and changes in soil chemistry result in the declines in production that occur with continuous M. sextelata cultivation.

Morchella is a kind of precious edible, medicinal fungi with a series of important effects, including anti-tumor and anti-oxidation effects. Based on the data of 18 environmental variables and the distribution sites of wild Morchella species, this study used a maximum entropy (MaxEnt) model to predict the changes in the geographic distribution of Morchella species in different historical periods (the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), Mid Holocene (MH), current, 2050s and 2070s). The results revealed that the area under the curve (AUC) values of the receiver operating characteristic curves of different periods were all relatively high (>0.83), indicating that the results of the maximum entropy model are good. Species distribution modeling showed that the major factors influencing the geographical distribution of Morchella species were the precipitation of the driest quarter (Bio17), elevation, the mean temperature of the coldest quarter (Bio11) and the annual mean temperature (Bio1). The simulation of geographic distribution suggested that the current suitable habitat of Morchella was mainly located in Yunnan, Sichuan, Gansu, Shaanxi, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR) and other provinces in China. Compared with current times, the suitable area in Northwest and Northeast China decreased in the LGM and MH periods. As for the future periods, the suitable habitats all increased under the different scenarios compared with those in contemporary times, showing a trend of expansion to Northeast and Northwest China. These results could provide a theoretical basis for the protection, rational exploitation and utilization of wild Morchella resources under scenarios of climate change.

In search of new anticancer agents, natural products including fungal compounds had been used as potential anticancer agents. The aim of this study was to investigate the anticancer activity of Morchella extracts against colon cancer cell line and UPLC-DAD-MS/MS analysis for the identification of compounds. The cytotoxic activity of the three Morchella species was examined for their anti-carcinogenic properties against the colon cancer cell lines. Phytochemical analyses were performed to screen Morchella for the presence of anti-cancerous compounds. All the fungal extracts inhibited the viability of colon cancer cells in a dose-dependent manner. Major compounds identified in Morchella included amino acid, fatty acid, sterol, flavonoid, peptide, glutamic acid, alkaloid, terpenoid, cyclopyrrolones, and coumarin. Several new compounds were detected among all the three Morchella extracts. In conclusion, all the fungal extracts showed potential inhibition of colon cancer cells and actively arrested the cell viability. It was concluded that the identified bioactive compounds might be the main constituents contributing to the anticancer activity of Morchella against human colon cancer cell lines. Thus, Morchella extracts are a potential source of bioactive compounds with cytotoxicity and could potentially be used as functional food supplements. Due to the nature of impressive findings, this investigation should be undertaken further to allow the studies to explore and develop a potential cytotoxic agents against colon cancer.

Morels are highly prized edible fungi where sexual reproduction is essential for fruiting-body production. As a result, a comprehensive understanding of their sexual reproduction is of great interest. Central to this is the identification of the reproductive strategies used by morels. Sexual reproduction in fungi is controlled by mating-type (MAT) genes and morels are thought to be mainly heterothallic with two idiomorphs, MAT1-1 and MAT1-2. Genomic sequencing of black (Elata clade) and yellow (Esculenta clade) morel species has led to the development of PCR primers designed to amplify genes from the two idiomorphs for rapid genotyping of isolates from these two clades. To evaluate the design and theoretical performance of these primers we performed a thorough bioinformatic investigation, including the detection of the MAT region in publicly available Morchella genomes and in-silico PCR analyses. All examined genomes, including those used for primer design, appeared to be heterothallic. This indicates an inherent fault in the original primer design which utilized a single Morchella genome, as the use of two genomes with complementary mating types would be required to design accurate primers for both idiomorphs. Furthermore, potential off-targets were identified for some of the previously published primer sets, but verification was challenging due to lack of adequate genomic information and detailed methodologies for primer design. Examinations of the black morel specific primer pairs (MAT11L/R and MAT22L/R) indicated the MAT22 primers would correctly target and amplify the MAT1-2 idiomorph, but the MAT11 primers appear to be capable of amplifying incorrect off-targets within the genome. The yellow morel primer pairs (EMAT1-1 L/R and EMAT1-2 L/R) appear to have reporting errors, as the published primer sequences are dissimilar with reported amplicon sequences and the EMAT1-2 primers appear to amplify the RNA polymerase II subunit (RPB2) gene. The lack of the reference genome used in primer design and descriptive methodology made it challenging to fully assess the apparent issues with the primers for this clade. In conclusion, additional work is still required for the generation of reliable primers to investigate mating types in morels and to assess their performance on different clades and across multiple geographical regions.