An outbreak of a fungal infection called “white-nose syndrome” is killing bats in the Northeastern US. This New Scientist article mentions the outbreak briefly and an NPR story and recent Boston Globe story also gives it some coverage.
Bats beware of white nose
Posted on August 18th, 2008 by Jason Stajich · No Comments
Categories: extremophiles · news · pathogens
Tags: bat, caves, cryptococcus, fungal, fungi, fungus, infection, news, research, white-nose syndrome
Will you always be able to satisfy that chocolate craving?
Posted on June 15th, 2008 by Jason Stajich · No Comments
NPR had a story this weekend on Cocoa plantation collapse and the ecological aftermath of the changes the witches’ broom fungus [[Moniliophthora perniciosa]] has wreaked. The genome sequence project for this Homobasidiomycete fungus is underway.
Categories: genome sequencing · homobasidiomycota · plant pathogen
Tags: brazil, cacao, Crinipellis, ecology, fungus, genome, genomes, Moniliophthora, plant pathogen, witches' broom
Amphibian skin bacteria shown to fight off Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis.
Posted on June 5th, 2008 by Chris Villalta · No Comments
A year ago researchers at James Madison University discovered that, Pedobacter cryoconitis, a bacteria first found on the skin of red backed salamanders, was found to prevent the growth of the chytrid B. dendrobatidis, which is currently decimating frog populations.

Categories: adaptation · chytridomycota · ecology · evolution · fungi
Tags: amphibians, antifungal, bacteria, batrachochytrium, chytrid, frog, fungal, fungus, news, pathogen
Penicillium marneffei project
Posted on June 3rd, 2008 by Jason Stajich · 4 Comments
We’re excited that a Penicillium marneffei grant to Mat Fisher and collaborators has been funded by the Welcome Trust. It includes a collaboration with University College London, our lab, JCVI, and Univ of Melbourne. This project will explore functional and comparative genomics approaches to studying the fungus
Categories: aspergillus · euriotiomycetes · news
Tags: comparative, comparative genomics, functional, functional genomics, funding, fungus, pathogens, penicillium
Trichoderma reesei genome paper published
Posted on May 12th, 2008 by Jason Stajich · 1 Comment
The [[Trichoderma reesei]] genome paper was recently published in Nature Biotechnology from Diego Martinez at [[LANL]] with collaborators at [[JGI]], [[LBNL]], and others. This fungus was chosen for sequencing because it was found on canvas tents eating the cotton material suggesting it may be a good candidate for degrading cellulose plant material as part of cellulosic ethanol production.
Categories: filamentous · gene family · genome · genome annotation · genome sequencing · trichoderma
Tags: aspergillus, biofuel, cellulase, comparative, database, definitions, enzymes, evolution, fermentation, filamentous, fungi, fungus, fusarium, genome, genomes, JGI, magnaporthe, pathogens, phylogenetics, s, sequences, sequencing, species, systematics, trichoderma
Podospora genome published
Posted on May 11th, 2008 by Jason Stajich · No Comments
The genome of Podospora anserina S mat+ strain was sequenced by Genoscope and CNRS and published recently in Genome Biology. The genome sequence data has been available for several years, but it is great to see a publication describing the findings. The 10X genome assembly with ~10,000 genes provides an important dataset for comparisons
Categories: comparative · genome · genome sequencing · neurospora · sordariomycetes
Tags: biology, comparative, coprophillic, dung, evolution, filamentous, fungi, fungus, genes, genome, neurospora, podospora, repeats, RIP, sequences, sequencing, species
More RIP without sex?
Posted on April 5th, 2008 by Jason Stajich · 1 Comment
Another asexual species of fungi also has evidence for the meiosis-specific process of Repeat Induced Point-mutations (RIP).
Categories: RIP · neurospora · pezizomycota · sordariomycetes
Tags: asexual, aspergillus, batrachochytrium, biology, evolution, fungal, fungi, fungus, gene, genes, genome, genomes, hybrid, hybridization, pathogen, pathogens, podospora, recombination, repeats, RIP, sex, species, transposon
RIPing in an asexual fungus
Posted on March 23rd, 2008 by Jason Stajich · 4 Comments
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A paper in Current Genetics describes the discovery of Repeat Induced Polymorphism (RIP) in two Euriotiales fungi. RIP has been extensively studied in Neurospora crassa and has been identified in other Sordariomycete fungi Magnaporthe, Fusiarium. This is not the first Aspergillus species to have RIP described as it was demonstrated in the biotech workhorse Aspergillus oryzae. However, I think this study is the first to describe RIP in a putatively asexual fungus. The evidence for RIP is only found in transposon sequences in the Aspergillus and Penicillium. A really interesting aspect of this discovery is RIP is thought to only occur during sexual stage, but a sexual state has never been observed for these fungi.
Categories: RIP · aspergillus · fusarium · magnaporthe · neurospora
Tags: aspergillus, fungi, fungus, gene, genes, genome, neurospora, penicillium, repeats, RIP, sequencing, sex, transposon
Ireland’s blight and Puccinia update
Posted on March 17th, 2008 by Jason Stajich · 2 Comments
Hyphoid logic points out that it is appropriate to discuss about the oomycete Phytophthora infestans on St. Patrick’s Day and mentions a NYT article “The fungus that conquered Europe” that is worth a look.
It is also worth thinking about another blight, well rust, that is spreading through the middle east and could threaten wheat crops worldwide. New Scientist has excellent coverage of Puccinia
Categories: oomycete · plant pathogen · rusts
Tags: fungus, news, pathogen, phytophthora, puccinia, rusts, spores, ug99
Ectomycorrhizal fungus Laccaria bicolor genome
Posted on March 6th, 2008 by balaji · No Comments
Today, I would like to share the news about the publication of the Laccaria bicolor genome. This is the first mycorrhizal symbiotic genome published in the Nature journal. The title is “The genome of Laccaria bicolor provides insights into mycorrhizal symbiosis”.
The team consisteing of more than 60 researchers from 16 institutions have revealed the interaction between plant and fungi.
For complete publication and additional
Categories: Agaricomycota · basidiomycota · fungi · genome · genome sequencing · symbiosis
Tags: fungi, fungus, genome, laccaria, news, plants, symbiosis
