Leucoagaricus gongylophorus Transcriptome or Gene expression. Leucoagaricus gongylophorus

Ca. 50 million years ago (MYA) fungus-growing ants began cultivating basidiomycete fungi for food in underground fungus garden chambers. More recently, ca. 25 MYA a crown group of the cultivated fungi evolved inflated hyphal tips (gongylidia) with a large vacuole as a specific symbiotic adaptation that are preferentially eaten by the ants. Here we use comparative RNA-seq and transcriptomics to characterize the transcriptome of the fungus L. gongylophorus cultivated by the leaf-cutting ant Acromyrmex echinatior.