While most basidiomycetes are difficult to cultivate in the laboratory, Coprinopsis cinerea is a notable exception in that it can complete its life cycle on artificial media in just two weeks. The C. cinerea genome is well-characterized, and both forward and reverse genetic approaches are now standard, allowing enormous scope for experimental manipulation in this system. Researchers want to develop C. cinerea as a model system for basidiomycetes, in part to understand the variation in regulation of enzymes most relevant to biomass degradation in this system, and to compile a complete inventory of genes that are under developmental control. This dataset is expected to be of enormous value to everyone who wishes to know “how to build a mushroom,” and provide a valuable point of comparison to fungi with alternative lifestyles.
PI: Pukkila, Patricia