Fungal cryptochrome with DNA repair activity reveals an early stage in cryptochrome evolution

Significance Photolyases repair UV-B–induced DNA lesions. They form a large protein family together with cryptochrome photoreceptors (cryptochrome/photolyase family, CPF). A more recently discovered CPF subclade consists of DASH ( Drosophila , Arabidopsis , Synechocystis , Human)-type cryptochromes (cry-DASH), present in bacteria, plants, animals, and fungi. Cry-DASH are considered as photoreceptors with residual repair activity for DNA lesions in single-stranded DNA. Canonical photolyases repair such lesions in single-stranded and double-stranded DNA. Here, we show that mucoromycotina fungi except Umbelopsis ramanniana , which is an early diverging lineage within the mucoralean fungi, encode only cry-DASH. They possess the full spectrum of DNA repair activity as canonical photolyases as exemplified for the Phycomyces CryA. This finding is a unique example of CPF evolution where a canonical CPD-photolyase was lost but its function was maintained by cry-DASH.