Fig. 2: Identification and functional analysis of dimorphic gene families in the M. lusitanicus genome.

a Dimorphic expression of paralogs from the two gene families comprising the HAIUS system across three comparative transcriptomic analyses described in Fig. 1. Data are presented as mean values ± SD of the Log2FC from three biological replicates that were sequenced from each condition. Data points are represented as yellow dot plots. b Comparison of mycelial and yeast growth (relative units) between the wild-type strain (WT) and mutant strains in the HAIUS system (∆fet3a∆frt1a: mutant in yeast-expressed paralogs; ∆fet3b∆frt1b: mutant in mycelium-expressed paralogs). Growth values (dry weight for mycelium and yeast count for yeast form) were obtained by seeding an identical inoculum of viable spores for the three strains in iron-free liquid YNB medium and were normalized to the values obtained with the same inoculum in rich YPG medium. Boxplots indicate the median, first, and third quartile. Whiskers are drawn down to the 10th percentile and up to the 90th. Significance was tested using unpaired one-sided t-test (P < 0,05); ****: P < 0,0001; *** P < 0.001; **P < 0.01. c Distribution of expression patterns for distinct gene clusters identified in the M. lusitanicus genome. d Percentage distribution of gene groups identified in the M. lusitanicus genome. DEGs: differentially expressed genes; UG: unique genes not forming gene families; GFID: gene families involved in dimorphism; GFDP: gene families with dimorphic paralogs; M: genes expressed in mycelium; Y: genes expressed in yeast. e Distribution of gene family types based on the number of components. TGF: total gene families. f Distribution of differential gene expression across dimorphism-related gene family types. T: GFDP + GFID. Gene expression values from selected gene families were obtained from the same transcriptomic analysis described in Fig. 1, in which three biological replicates were sequenced from each condition. Boxplots indicate the median, first, and third quartile. Whiskers are drawn down to the 10th percentile and up to the 90th. g KEGG functional enrichment analysis comparing gene family types.