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| Mortierella | |
|---|---|
| Name | Mortierella |
| Regnum | Fungi |
| Phylum | Mucoromycota |
| Classis | Mortierellomycetes |
| Ordo | Mortierellales |
| Familia | Mortierellaceae |
| Genus | Mortierella |
| Authority | Coem. (1863) |
Mortierella is a genus of soil-associated fungi notable for saprotrophic decomposition, production of polyunsaturated fatty acids, and roles in rhizosphere interactions. Members are distributed in temperate and polar regions and have been studied across mycology, microbiology, and biotechnology for their metabolic diversity and biotechnological potential. Research spans taxonomy, ecology, molecular genetics, and applied uses in agriculture, industry, and medicine.
Mortierella belongs to the phylum Mucoromycota and the class Mortierellomycetes within the order Mortierellales and family Mortierellaceae, with taxonomic frameworks influenced by comparisons to taxa in Basidiomycota, Ascomycota, Zygomycota (historical grouping), Glomeromycota, Chytridiomycota, Microsporidia, and Neocallimastigomycota. Early circumscription by Jean-Baptiste Édouard Bornet and later revision by Marcel Locquin and Henri Coemans were succeeded by molecular reappraisals using markers developed in laboratories associated with Max Planck Society, Smithsonian Institution, Kew Gardens, United States Department of Agriculture, and university groups at Harvard University, University of Oxford, University of California, Berkeley, and University of Tokyo. Multilocus phylogenies often reference loci used in studies from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Broad Institute, and collaborations with researchers from Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of São Paulo, and ETH Zurich. Contemporary classification integrates data from projects like the Tree of Life and databases hosted by MycoBank, Index Fungorum, and GenBank.
Vegetative mycelia of species show coenocytic hyphae with branching patterns documented in electron microscopy studies at National Institutes of Health facilities and imaging centers at Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology. Asexual reproduction produces sporangiospores on sporangiophores examined in classical works by Elias Magnus Fries and later by researchers at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Field Museum of Natural History. Sexual stages, when present, form zygospores that were characterized in microscopy collections at Smithsonian Institution and in publications from American Phytopathological Society. Life cycle descriptions reference culture studies performed at Culture Collection of Fungi (CBS), ATCC, and university culture banks at Cornell University and University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Species inhabit soils in boreal, temperate, alpine, and polar ecosystems mapped by researchers affiliated with National Science Foundation projects and surveys coordinated by UN Environment Programme, World Wildlife Fund, International Union for Conservation of Nature, and regional institutions such as New Zealand Department of Conservation, Environment Canada, European Environment Agency, and Australian National University. Mortierella species are frequently isolated from rhizospheres associated with plant collections at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Missouri Botanical Garden, New York Botanical Garden, and agricultural plots managed by Food and Agriculture Organization. Occurrence records are held in biodiversity repositories like GBIF, iNaturalist, and museums including Natural History Museum, London and Museum für Naturkunde. Some species show psychrotolerance documented in Antarctic studies by British Antarctic Survey and Arctic expeditions led by Norwegian Polar Institute.
Metabolic profiling reveals synthesis of omega-3 and omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids such as arachidonic acid and gamma-linolenic acid; biochemical pathways were elucidated in collaborations among researchers at Scripps Research Institute, Johns Hopkins University, University of Minnesota, and industrial labs at DuPont and DSM. Enzymology includes lipases, desaturases, and elongases studied using proteomics platforms at EMBL-EBI, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, and Proteomics Core Facility of Stanford University Medical Center. Physiological traits such as growth temperature ranges, carbon utilization and tolerance to osmotic stress have been compared with isolates in studies funded by European Research Council, National Institutes of Health, and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.
Mortierella spp. engage in commensal and mutualistic interactions with plant roots described in experiments at Wageningen University, Iowa State University, and Lincoln University (New Zealand), sometimes affecting nutrient uptake in trials coordinated with CIMMYT and International Rice Research Institute. Clinical reports of human infections are rare but documented in case studies published in journals associated with Infectious Diseases Society of America and hospitals such as Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, and Johns Hopkins Hospital; risk groups noted in reports from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention include immunocompromised patients tracked in clinical networks like EPINET. Antagonistic interactions with pathogens have been explored in biocontrol trials involving collaborations with Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute and CSIRO.
Genomic sequences for several species are deposited in GenBank and analyzed in consortium efforts with Broad Institute, JGI (Joint Genome Institute), European Nucleotide Archive, and university sequencing centers at Wellcome Sanger Institute and Beijing Genomics Institute. Transcriptomics, CRISPR studies, and heterologous expression experiments have been reported from labs at MIT, Stanford University, Peking University, and University of British Columbia. Comparative genomics contrasts Mortierella gene repertoires with those from Rhizopus, Lichtheimia, Mucor, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and Neurospora crassa in analyses published via collaborations with PLoS, Nature Publishing Group, and Elsevier journals.
Industrial applications include microbial production of polyunsaturated fatty acids scaled by companies such as Unilever, BASF, and specialty producers partnering with academic groups at University of Groningen and Technical University of Munich. Agricultural uses as biofertilizers and biostimulants were trialed with support from EU Horizon 2020, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and national agencies including USDA and Defra. Bioremediation and enzyme sourcing for biocatalysis have been pursued in collaborations involving Chevron, Siemens, and university spinouts from Imperial College London and ETH Zurich.
The genus was formally described in the 19th century and subsequently revised through classical taxonomic work by mycologists associated with institutions like Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris, and German National Library of Science and Technology. Twentieth-century advances came from researchers at Pennsylvania State University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Wisconsin–Madison, and Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology while molecular-era reclassification was driven by contributions from groups at Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Wellcome Sanger Institute, and databases maintained by MycoBank and Index Fungorum. Contemporary studies integrate field surveys from International Polar Year programs and large-scale sequencing initiatives funded by NSF and ERC.