The Hyphal Tip: Fungal Genomes and Comparative Genomics

Spread of wheat rust Puccinia strain Ug99 and consequences on already strained food supplies is discussed in an Op-Ed piece covered in GeneticMaize

A paper in Science from Jason Crawford and colleagues explores the function of polyketide synthetases (PKS) in the synthesis of the secondary metabolite and carcinogen aflatoxin. Previous work (nicely reviewed in the fungi by Nancy Keller and colleagues) has shown the the PKS genes have several domains. These domains include acyl carrier protein (ACP), transacylase (SAT), ketosynthase (KS), malonyl-CoA:ACP transacylase (MAT), “product template” PT, Aand thioesterase/Claisen cyclase (TE/CLC).

EMBO Workshop on Evolutionary and Environmental Genomics of Yeasts taking place at EMBL Heidelberg, 1-5 October 2008

Jennifer from the other end of the lab just showed me the Rhizoctonia solani genome project page at JCVI.  Another Basidiomycete genome on the way, yah!

A link to the story about Matteo Garbelotto's work on Phytophthora ramorum and showing that the source in California is likely from ornamentals from a nursery. The work is to appear soon in Molecular Ecology but alas is not available yet.

A recent paper on updated Phytophthora phylogeny from Jamie Blair and co-authors is also out in FGB.

The old site I setup during my PhD (fungal.genome.duke.edu) was shutdown by Duke. I have been able to migrate the domain name to the fungalgenome.org site that is funded by the TaylorLab, but have not had time to restore all functionality of the old data and site.

A few of the summer meetings that relate to fungal biology and evolution. 

• Genetics and Cell Biology of Basidiomycetes, May 28-June 1, Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau, MO. Registration deadline April 25.
• North American Pombe Meeting, June 6-8, Los Angeles, CA. Registration deadline May 14.
• Cellular & Molecular Fungal Biology Gordon Conference, June 29-July 4, The Holderness School, Holderness, NH. Registration deadline June 8 (if it doesn't fill up sooner).
• Yeast Genetics and Molecular

Here's a fungal infection you don't hear much about. One of the fungi we work on, a model for mushroom development as it can be fruited in the lab is Coprinopsis cinerea (previously named Coprinus cinereus). C. cinerea is a saprobric coprophillic fungus so it is usually found on dung.  Although rare in human infections there are a few reports in immunocopromised patients.

Ewan Birney and Ensembl (the other/original genome browser depending on if you are a UCSC junkie) have started blogging a bit more about what is going on under the proverbial hood over there in Hinxton.  There are some great nuggets talking about what are some of the current problems.  These bite-sized comments should be a great glimpse into how Ensembl works

Not that I'm a bioengineer, but I like to hang out with those types. Check out the now posted the MP3 of the RadioLab synthetic biology story I blogged about before.  Listen to the whole thing but you can skip ahead to about 39:00 to the "BioEngineer's song".