Survey of Early-Diverging Lineages of Fungi Reveals Abundant and Diverse Mycoviruses
Jillian M. Myers, Anne E. Bonds, Rebecca A. Clemons, Natasha Thapa, D. Rabern Simmons, Derreck Carter-House, Jericho Ortañez, P. Liu, Alejandro Miralles-Durán, Alessandro Desirò, Joyce E. Longcore, Gregory Bonito, Jason Stajich, J. W. Spatafora, Ying Chang, Luis M. Corrochano, Andrii P. Gryganskyi, Igor V. Grigoriev, Timothy Y. James
Abstract
Viruses are key drivers of evolution and ecosystem function and are increasingly recognized as symbionts of fungi. Fungi in early-diverging lineages are widespread, ecologically important, and comprise the majority of the phylogenetic diversity of the kingdom. Viruses infecting early-diverging lineages of fungi have been almost entirely unstudied. In this study, we screened fungi for viruses by two alternative approaches: a classic culture-based method and by transcriptome-mining. The results of our large-scale survey demonstrate that early-diverging lineages have higher infection rates than have been previously reported in other fungal taxa and that laboratory strains worldwide are host to infections, the implications of which are unknown. The function and diversity of mycoviruses found in these basal fungal lineages will help guide future studies into mycovirus origins and their evolutionary ramifications and ecological impacts.