Transposon-associated epigenetic silencing during Pleurotus ostreatus life cycle

In this study, we analyzed the genome-wide epigenetic and transcriptional patterns of the white-rot basidiomycete Pleurotus ostreatus throughout its life cycle. Our results performed by using high-throughput sequencing analyses revealed that strain-specific DNA methylation profiles are primarily involved in the repression of transposon activity, and suggest that 21 nt small RNAs play a key role in transposon silencing.Furthermore, we provide evidence that transposon-associated DNA methylation, but not sRNA production, is directly involved in the silencing of genes surrounded by transposons. Finally, we identified key genes activated in the fruiting process through the comparative analysis of transcriptomes. Examination of mRNA-seq, smallRNAseq and Bisulfite-seq in six samples of Pleurotus ostreatus, using three biological replicates