FunFun: ITS-based functional annotator of fungal communities

Abstract

Fungi are inseparable companions of human life, they can be found in both the environment and human organs including skin, respiratory tract and gut. Studies of fungal communities are of great interest to modern biology, partially due to their specific way of life and the presence of unique biochemical pathways they have. Fungi have been shown to be both producers of useful compounds, such as antibiotics and organic acids, and pathogens of various diseases. When considering the selected fungal community, in a number of cases it is rather difficult to evaluate its functional capabilities, which is partially caused by some technical difficulties in the analysis and annotation of whole eukaryotic genomes. In practice, the taxonomic composition of fungal communities is determined using short marker sequences. The most popular fungal taxonomy markers are ITS (internal transcribed spacer) sequences. Here, we present FunFun, the instrument that allows to evaluate the functional content of an individual fungus or mycobiome based on ITS sequencing data.