The Hyphal Tip

Digesting the fungal genomes

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Genome survey sequencing of Witches’ Broom

Posted on November 23rd, 2008 by Jason Stajich · No Comments

Genome survey sequencing (1.9X coverage) was generated for Moniliophthora perniciosa, the cause of witches’ broom disease on cacao plants. The sequence for this basidiomycete plant pathogen was published in BMC Genomics this week. The authors report a higher number of ROS metabolism and P450 genes. Evaluating whether these copy number differences are significantly different [...]

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Categories: P450 · basidiomycota · genome · genome sequencing · plant pathogen
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Bat White-nose syndrome brevia

Posted on October 31st, 2008 by Jason Stajich · 2 Comments

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.

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Categories: dictyostelium · fungi
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A word about databases

Posted on July 27th, 2008 by Jason Stajich · 1 Comment

Logo for fungal GenomesReport concludes that a fungal genome database is of “the highest priority”.

This is the title as listed in PubMed for this article from Future Medicine about the AAM report on charting future needs and avenues of research on the fungal kingdom.

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Categories: opinion
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Cochliobolus genome released

Posted on July 17th, 2008 by Jason Stajich · 1 Comment

Just noticed that the [[JGI]] has released the Cochliobolus heterostrophus genome sequence at their site predicting 9,633 protein-coding genes.  Torrey Mesa Research Institute had access to a sequence many years ago, but it isn’t until now that public version of this genome is available.  Cochliobolus is has been a model plant pathogen system and its production of T-Toxin by a PKS gene (Yang et al)

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Categories: pezizomycota
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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.

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Categories: adaptation · chytridomycota · ecology · evolution · fungi
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Stem rust

Posted on April 29th, 2008 by Jason Stajich · 2 Comments

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

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Categories: plant pathogen · rusts
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Deconstructing aflatoxin biosynthesis

Posted on April 27th, 2008 by Jason Stajich · No Comments

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).

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Categories: PKS · aflatoxin · aspergillus
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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).

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Categories: RIP · neurospora · pezizomycota · sordariomycetes
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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

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Categories: oomycete · plant pathogen · rusts
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Cryptococcus species deliniation

Posted on February 17th, 2008 by Jason Stajich · No Comments

ResearchBlogging.org 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

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Categories: cryptococcus · human pathogen · phylogenetics · phylogeny · speciation
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