Culture performance, gene marker, and transcriptome data for fungal isolates (Chalara longipes, Laccaria bicolor, Serpula lacrymans, and Trichoderma harzianum)

Metatranscriptomics holds the prospect of predicting fungal phenotypes based on patterns of gene expressions, providing new opportunities to obtain information about metabolic processes without disturbance of natural systems, and with taxonomic resolution. Acquisition of fungal metabolic carbon and its subsequent partitioning between biomass production and respiration, i.e. the carbon-use efficiency, are central parameters in biogeochemical modelling. However, current available techniques for estimating these parameters in natural systems are all associated with practical and theoretical shortcomings, making assessments unreliable. We cultured four different fungal isolates (Chalara longipes, Laccaria bicolor, Serpula lacrymans, and Trichoderma harzianum) in liquid media with contrasting nitrogen availability and measured growth rates and respiration to calculate carbon-use efficiency. By relating expression of gene markers to measured carbon fluxes, we identified genes coding for 1,3-β...