Brief Introduction to a Unique Edible Bolete---Phlebopus portentosus in Southern China

Abstraet： Phlebopus portentosus （Berk. and Broome） Boedijn is a favored wild edible mushroom in the Xishuangbanna region, Yunnan, China and Northern Thailand. It belongs to Boletinellaceae family and is known as ＂black bolete＂. Its ecological habits and biotrophy are very complicated. It can be saprobic and successfully cultivated in mushroom house conditions. More often it grows closely with many plants, but is not mycorrhizal fungus. It forms a tripartite association with root mealy bugs and plants. The fungus produces special fungus-insect gall with the soil mealy bugs, which is a symbiotic association between these two creatures. The gall grows on plant roots with parasitic tendency. This paper is a compact report of the findings, including taxonomy, ecology, economic and cultivation of this mushroom.

In vivo gene expression profiling of the entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana elucidates its infection stratagems in Anopheles mosquito

The use of entomopathogenic fungi to control mosquitoes is a promising tool for reducing vector-borne disease transmission. To better understand infection stratagems of insect pathogenic fungi, we analyzed the global gene expression profiling of Beauveria bassiana at 36, 60, 84 and 108 h after topical infection of Anopheles stephensi adult mosquitoes using RNA sequencing （RNA-Seq）. A total of 5,354 differentially expressed genes （DEGs） are identified over the course of fungal infection. When the fungus grows on the mosquito cuticle, up-regulated DEGs include adhesion-related genes involved in cuticle attachment, Pthl l-like GPCRs hypothesized to be involved in host recognition, and extracellular enzymes involved in the degradation and penetration of the mosquito cuticle. Once in the mosquito hemocoel, the fungus evades mosquito immune system probably through up-regulating expression of 13-1,3-glucan degrading enzymes and chitin synthesis enzymes for remodeling of cell walls. Moreover, six previous unknown SSCP （small secreted cysteine-rich proteins） are significantly up-regulated, which may serve as ＂effectors＂ to suppress host defense responses. B. bassiana also induces large amounts of antioxidant genes to mitigate host-generated exogenous oxidative stress. At late stage of infection, B. bassiana activates a broad spectrum of genes including nutrient degrading enzymes, some transporters and metabolism pathway components, to exploit mosquito tissues and hemolymph as a nutrient source for hyphal growth. These findings establish an important framework of knowledge for further comprehensive elucidation of fungal pathogenesis and molecular mechanism of Beauveria-mosquito interactions.