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Origins and evolution of pathogens

An article in PLoS Pathogens by Morris et al describe a hypothesis about the evolution and origins of plant pathogens applying the parallel theories to the emergence of medically relevant pathogens. The authors highlight the importance of understanding the evolution of organisms in the context of emerging pathogens like Puccinia Ug99 for our ability [...]

White-nose syndrome fungus to be sequenced

As part of the dermatophyte efforts and emerging infectious diseases the Fungal Genome Initiative at the Broad Institute will be sequencing the genome of Geomyces destructans. G. destructans is linked to the white-nose syndrome in Bats.

See also some recent posts on white-nose syndrome.

A cacophony of comparative genomics papers

A nice series of comparative genomics articles have been published in the last few weeks. The pace of genome sequencing has accelerated to the point that we have lots of sequencing projects coming from individual labs and small consortia not necessarily from genome centers. We are seeing a preview of what next (2nd) generation [...]

Bat White-nose syndrome brevia

A Brevia piece in Science today describes efforts to describe the causal agent in white-nose syndrome (WNS) in bats which appears to be contributing to bat decline. According to the authors, previous work had described an uncharacterized fungus associated with bats that showed signs of being sick with WNS. [...]