2025/07/17 by Héctor Antônio Assunção Romão, Thalison Rodrigues Moreira, Leonardo Carlos Jeronimo Corvalán +5 · 1 voice
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Agricultural and Biological Sciences · #Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies #Mycorrhizal Fungi and Plant Interactions #Plant Pathogens and Fungal Diseases
paper · pdf · doi:10.3897/imafungus.16.150451
openalex publication_date 2025/07/17 · openalex created_date 2025/07/30 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
Mitochondrial genomes (mtDNA) provide valuable resources for investigating fungal evolution; however, comprehensive mitogenomic datasets for Onygenales are still scarce. Here, we assembled and annotated 30 new mitogenomes representing 18 species across five families, substantially expanding the available resources for this order. We tested two evolutionary hypotheses: (1) that structural features of mitochondrial genomes are phylogenetically conserved and (2) that introns and homing endonuclease genes (HEGs) have co-evolved and contributed to genome size variation. All mitogenomes exhibited conserved protein-coding content, but showed considerable variation in intron number and genome size. Phylogenetic signal was significant for multiple traits, including gene number and intron abundance. Furthermore, phylogenetic regression analyses revealed a strong correlation between intron content and HEG abundance, thereby substantiating the hypothesis of coordinated evolution. Our findings demonstrate that mitochondrial genome evolution in Onygenales reflects both structural conservation and lineage-specific expansion patterns, shaped in part by the distribution of introns and HEGs.