Puffball mushrooms lost their sunlight-repair genes over time
Virágh M, Szafián DA, Csernetics Á, Liu XB, Nyári D
Foraging
Next time you spot a puffball or earthstar in the woods, you're looking at a fungus that evolved away from sunlight so completely it discarded the DNA-repair genes most living things still carry.
Many mushrooms carry a built-in repair kit for sun damage to their DNA, similar to what plants and humans have. But researchers scanning 655 fungal genomes found that mushrooms with enclosed, ball-shaped fruiting bodies, like puffballs, where spores mature hidden away from light, have repeatedly lost this repair gene. They also showed that in a related mushroom that still has the gene, blue light actually switches it on, confirming the gene's job is tied directly to light exposure.
Key Findings
Analysis of 655 fungal genomes revealed mushroom-forming fungi ancestrally had four CRY/PHR (cryptochrome/photolyase) gene subfamilies
Class I CPD photolyase genes were independently lost multiple times in Agaricomycetes with gasteroid (enclosed, ball-like) fruiting bodies where spores develop shielded from light
In Coprinopsis cinerea, the Phr1 protein was confirmed to repair UV-induced DNA damage in a light-dependent way, and its expression is switched on by blue light through the white-collar light-sensing complex
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists found that certain mushrooms which grow their spores hidden underground or inside a shielded ball, like puffballs, have lost the gene for repairing sun damage to DNA, because their spores never see light in the first place. It's a clear case of evolution shedding a tool that's no longer needed.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Basidiomycete fruiting body morphology correlates with the convergent loss of photolyase-related proteins.
Cryptochromes and photolyase-related (CRY/PHR) proteins are flavoproteins involved in blue-light signaling and/or the light-dependent repair of UV-induced DNA damage across all domains of life. Alt...
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