Widespread Polycistronic Transcripts in Fungi Revealed by Single-Molecule mRNA Sequencing

PLoS One. 2015 Jul 15;10(7):e0132628. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0132628. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

Genes in prokaryotic genomes are often arranged into clusters and co-transcribed into polycistronic RNAs. Isolated examples of polycistronic RNAs were also reported in some higher eukaryotes but their presence was generally considered rare. Here we developed a long-read sequencing strategy to identify polycistronic transcripts in several mushroom forming fungal species including Plicaturopsis crispa, Phanerochaete chrysosporium, Trametes versicolor, and Gloeophyllum trabeum. We found genome-wide prevalence of polycistronic transcription in these Agaricomycetes, involving up to 8% of the transcribed genes. Unlike polycistronic mRNAs in prokaryotes, these co-transcribed genes are also independently transcribed. We show that polycistronic transcription may interfere with expression of the downstream tandem gene. Further comparative genomic analysis indicates that polycistronic transcription is conserved among a wide range of mushroom forming fungi. In summary, our study revealed, for the first time, the genome prevalence of polycistronic transcription in a phylogenetic range of higher fungi. Furthermore, we systematically show that our long-read sequencing approach and combined bioinformatics pipeline is a generic powerful tool for precise characterization of complex transcriptomes that enables identification of mRNA isoforms not recovered via short-read assembly.

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Agaricales / classification
  • Agaricales / genetics*
  • Computational Biology / methods
  • Gene Expression Profiling / methods
  • Genes, Fungal
  • Phylogeny
  • RNA, Fungal / genetics
  • RNA, Messenger / genetics*
  • Sequence Analysis, RNA / methods*

Substances

  • RNA, Fungal
  • RNA, Messenger

Grants and funding

The work was conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute and supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. Pacific Biosciences provided support in the form of salaries for authors ET and JU, but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the 'author contributions' section.