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.
Will you always be able to satisfy that chocolate craving?
Posted on June 15th, 2008 by Jason Stajich · No Comments
Categories: genome sequencing · homobasidiomycota · plant pathogen
Amphibian skin bacteria shown to fight off Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis.
Posted on June 5th, 2008 by Chris Villalta · No Comments
Categories: adaptation · chytridomycota · ecology · evolution · fungi
Penicillium marneffei project
Posted on June 3rd, 2008 by Jason Stajich · 3 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
Trichoderma reesei genome paper published
Posted on May 12th, 2008 by Jason Stajich · No Comments
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
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
RIPing in an asexual fungus
Posted on March 23rd, 2008 by Jason Stajich · 3 Comments
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
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
Ectomycorrhizal fungus Laccaria bicolor genome
Posted on March 6th, 2008 by balaji · No Comments
Categories: Agaricomycota · basidiomycota · fungi · genome · genome sequencing · symbiosis
Some links
Posted on March 3rd, 2008 by Jason Stajich · 1 Comment
Categories: basidiomycota · database · extremophiles · molecular evolution · pathogens · zygomycete
Cryptococcus species deliniation
Posted on February 17th, 2008 by Jason Stajich · No Comments
What delineates species boundaries in fungi? Much work has been done on biological and phylogenetic species concepts in fungi. Some concepts are reviewed in Taylor et al 2006 and in Taylor et al 2000, and applications can be seen in several pathogens such as Paraccocidiodies, Coccidioides, and the model filamentous (non-pathogenic) fungus Neurospora
Categories: cryptococcus · human pathogen · phylogenetics · phylogeny · speciation
