Transcriptomic analysis of the dimorphic transition of Ustilago maydis induced in vitro by a change in pH

• The transcriptome of the Ustilago maydis in vitro dimorphic transition is described.
• Specific genes involved in dimorphism were identified using monomorphic mutants.
• A total of 154 genes specifically involved in dimorphism were identified.
• The functional categories to which the differential genes belonged were identified.
• Our data are important to better understand the molecular bases of dimorphism.

Dimorphism is the property of fungi to grow as budding yeasts or mycelium, depending on the environmental conditions. This phenomenon is important as a model of differentiation in eukaryotic organisms, and since a large number of fungal diseases are caused by dimorphic fungi, its study is important for practical reasons. In this work, we examined the transcriptome during the dimorphic transition of the basidiomycota phytopathogenic fungus Ustilago maydis using microarrays, utilizing yeast and mycelium monomorphic mutants as controls. This way, we thereby identified 154 genes of the fungus that are specifically involved in the dimorphic transition induced by a pH change. Of these, 82 genes were up-regulated, and 72 were down-regulated. Differential categorization of these genes revealed that they mostly belonged to the classes of metabolism, cell cycle and DNA processing, transcription and protein fate, transport and cellular communication, stress, cell differentiation and biogenesis of cellular components, while a significant number of them corresponded to unclassified proteins. The data reported in this work are important for our understanding of the molecular bases of dimorphism in U. maydis, and possibly of other fungi.