Summary: Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are promising alternative antimicrobial agents. Currently, however, portable, user-friendly and efficient methods for predicting AMP sequences from genome-scale data are not readily available. Here we present amPEPpy, an open-source, multi-threaded command-line application for predicting AMP sequences using a random forest classifier. Availability and implementation: amPEPpy is implemented in Python 3 and is freely available through GitHub (https://github.com/tlawrence3/amPEPpy). Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Mycorrhizal fungi form mutualistic associations with the roots of most land plants and provide them with mineral nutrients from the soil in exchange for fixed carbon derived from photosynthesis. The common symbiosis pathway (CSP) is a conserved molecular signaling pathway in all plants capable of associating with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. It is required not only for arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis but also for rhizobia–legume and actinorhizal symbioses. Given its role in such diverse symbiotic associations, we hypothesized that the CSP also plays a role in ectomycorrhizal associations. We showed that the ectomycorrhizal fungus Laccaria bicolor produces an array of lipochitooligosaccharides (LCOs) that can trigger both root hair branching in legumes and, most importantly, calcium spiking in the host plant Populus in a CASTOR/POLLUX-dependent manner. Nonsulfated LCOs enhanced lateral root development in Populus in a calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase (CCaMK)-dependent manner, and sulfated LCOs enhanced the colonization of Populus by L. bicolor. Compared with the wild-type Populus, the colonization of CASTOR/POLLUX and CCaMK RNA interference lines by L. bicolor was reduced. Our work demonstrates that similar to other root symbioses, L. bicolor uses the CSP for the full establishment of its mutualistic association with Populus.

Lipo-chitooligosaccharides (LCOs) are signaling molecules produced by rhizobial bacteria that trigger the nodulation process in legumes, and by some fungi that also establish symbiotic relationships with plants, notably the arbuscular and ecto mycorrhizal fungi. Here, we show that many other fungi also produce LCOs. We tested 59 species representing most fungal phyla, and found that 53 species produce LCOs that can be detected by functional assays and/or by mass spectroscopy. LCO treatment affects spore germination, branching of hyphae, pseudohyphal growth, and transcription in non-symbiotic fungi from the Ascomycete and Basidiomycete phyla. Our findings suggest that LCO production is common among fungi, and LCOs may function as signals regulating fungal growth and development.

Significance: Secondary metabolites (SMs) produced by fungi mediate ecological interactions, define fungal niches, and are of profound pharmacological importance to humans. Most work on SMs has focused on a small number of individuals from each species, not fully reflecting the importance of intraspecific diversity. We demonstrate that even in one of the best-studied model fungi, the carcinogen-producing Aspergillus flavus , more than 25% of SM-producing biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) are novel and/or show population-specific variants. These results support the finding that the organization of BGC diversity into population-specific patterns may sometimes result from ecologically important interactions and may inform evolutionary and etiological inferences of SM capacities within a species. Importantly, our work also presents a vision of sources of potential pharmaceuticals.

Cheese rinds are economically important microbial communities where fungi can impact food quality and aesthetics. The specific mechanisms by which fungi can regulate bacterial community assembly in cheeses, other fermented foods, and microbiomes in general are largely unknown.