Data from: The fungus that came in from the cold: dry rot’s pre-adapted ability to invade buildings

Many organisms benefit from being pre-adapted to niches shaped by human activity, and have successfully invaded man-made habitats. One such species is the dry rot fungus Serpula lacrymans, which has a wide distribution in buildings in temperate and boreal regions, where it decomposes coniferous construction wood. Comparative genomic analyses and growth experiments using this species and its wild relatives revealed that S. lacrymans evolved a very effective brown rot decay compared to its wild relatives, enabling an extremely rapid decay in buildings under suitable conditions. Adaptations in intracellular transport machineries promoting hyphal growth, and nutrient and water transport may explain why it is has become a successful invader of timber in houses. Further, we demonstrate that S. lacrymans has poor combative ability in our experimental setup, compared to other brown rot fungi. In sheltered indoor conditions, the dry rot fungus may have limited encounters with other wood decay fungi compared to its wild relatives. Overall, our analyses indicate that the dry rot fungus is an ecological specialist with poor combative ability against other fungi.

诸多生物可通过预先适应人类活动塑造的生态位，成功入侵人工营造的栖息环境。其中一类代表性物种为干朽真菌密粘褶菌（Serpula lacrymans），该菌在温带与寒带地区的建筑内广泛分布，能够分解针叶木建筑用材。通过对该菌及其野生近缘种开展比较基因组分析与生长实验，本研究团队发现，相较于其野生近缘种，密粘褶菌演化出了极强的褐腐分解能力，可在适宜条件下于建筑内实现极快的木材腐朽进程。其促进菌丝生长、养分与水分运输的细胞内运输系统相关适应性演化，或可解释该菌为何能够成功入侵住宅木材。此外，相较于其他褐腐真菌，本实验体系证实密粘褶菌的拮抗能力较弱。在遮蔽的室内环境中，相较于其野生近缘种，密粘褶菌与其他木材腐朽真菌接触的概率相对有限。综上，本研究的分析结果表明，干朽真菌密粘褶菌是一类生态特化物种，其与其他真菌的拮抗能力较弱。