Hiroshima Team Maps Fungal Genes Without Reference — SkimNews
Get the Health newsletter
Daily health & science — research, biotech, public health, the studies worth knowing. Free.
- Professor Hidemasa Bono led a team at Hiroshima University that created a fungal‑specific workflow for functional analysis of RNA‑seq data without needing a reference genome.
- 57 shiitake mushroom samples (Lentinula edodes strain H600) and 20 Asian soybean rust samples (Phakopsora pachyrhizi) were processed to evaluate the workflow.
- Over 96% of protein‑coding transcripts were annotated, delivering higher functional detection resolution than existing generalized tools.
- Standard short‑read RNA‑seq and full‑length Iso‑Seq data were both successfully processed, showing the workflow’s versatility across sequencing platforms.
- Specialized fungal‑specific databases were used for sequence comparison instead of reference genomes, enabling more comprehensive functional enrichment analysis and identification of high‑priority CRISPR targets.
- Journal of Fungi (2026) published the study, co‑authored by Nagisa Morihara and Hidemasa Bono.
Why it matters: Fungal researchers, especially those studying non‑model organisms or pathogens, gain a rapid, accurate tool for functional annotation, reducing reliance on scarce reference genomes and streamlining downstream analyses such as enrichment studies and CRISPR target selection, which can accelerate industrial and medical applications.
Ask SkimNews
