From: Treseder KK, Lennon JT. 2015. Fungal traits that drive ecosystem dynamics on land. Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews 79:243-262.
Membrane transport proteins
Glycine uptake by Penicillium
Nitrogen and P transporters. In order to directly acquire N, P, and other nutrients from the environment, fungi can construct membrane transport proteins (i.e., transporters or permeases) to take up relatively small organic compounds such as amino acids (Grenson et al. 1970, Jauniaux and Grenson 1990, Nehls et al. 1999, Wipf et al. 2002, Cappellazzo et al. 2008, Gresham et al. 2010), or mineral nutrients such as phosphate (Versaw and Metzenberg 1995), ammonium (Mitsuzawa 2006), or nitrate (Slot et al. 2007). Fungi can also conduct endocytosis (Dulic et al. 1991, Geli and Riezman 1998, Read and Kalkman 2003, Penalva 2005, Galletta and Cooper 2009, Higuchi et al. 2009), which is another strategy for internalization of nutrients.
Even though fungi must take up N from the soil to maintain growth, they differ in their preferences for various forms of N (Cairney 1999, Lilleskov et al. 2002, Talbot and Treseder 2010). For instance, Lilleskov et al. (2002) reported that fungal species dominating ecosystems with low N availability tended to prefer protein-derived N; those inhabiting N-saturated systems targeted mineral N instead. Plett and Martin (2011) have noted that amino acid, ammonium, and other N transporters are broadly up-regulated in ectomycorrhizal tissues. Finally, nitrate transporter genes are known to be widely distributed throughout the fungal phylogeny, including numerous Ascomycota and Basidiomycota genera (Slot et al. 2007).
As fungi internalize N and P, this activity results in microbial immobilization (Chapin et al. 2011). In other words, the acquired nutrients are no longer readily available for other organisms such as plants. This has important ecosystem-level consequences. For example, microbes immobilize 20–35% of organic P in soils (Smith and Paul 1990, Walbridge et al. 1991, Jonasson et al. 1999). By contrast, microbially-immobilized N represents about 2–5% of total soil N, globally (Wardle 1992). Nitrogen will remain immobilized within fungi until their tissues senesce and are decomposed, until they are consumed by other organisms, or until they secrete the N as ammonium. Cycles of wetting and drying can alter each of these processes in the soil (Schimel et al. 2007). The secretion of ammonium contributes to N mineralization, and it is expected to occur if fungi use acquired organic N as a source of energy or C instead of N (Rosswall 1982, Schlesinger and Bernhardt 2013). In general, N mineralization is thought to be more prevalent where soil N availability is high enough that fungal growth is not N-limited (Schimel and Bennett 2004).
Fungal genes for N and P transporters
Ability to transport N and P varies most at the phylum & subphylum level:
http://mmbr.asm.org/content/79/2/243/F3.expansion.html
Phylogenetic distribution of N and P transporters:
http://mmbr.asm.org/content/79/2/243/F4.expansion.html
Genetic capacities for amino acid permeases and ammonium transporters are greatest in yeasts:
http://mmbr.asm.org/content/79/2/243/F5.expansion.html
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