The Fusarium graminearum genome reveals a link between localized polymorphism and pathogen specialization

Citation

Cuomo, C.A., Güldener, U., Xu, J.R., Trail, F., Turgeon, B.G., Di Pietro, A., Walton, J.D., Ma, L.J., Baker, S.E., Rep, M., Adam, G., Antoniw, J., Baldwin, T., Calvo, S., Chang, Y.L., DeCaprio, D., Gale, L.R., Gnerre, S., Goswami, R.S., Hammond-Kosack, K., Harris, L.J., Hilburn, K., Kennell, J.C., Kroken, S., Magnuson, J.K., Mannhaupt, G., Mauceli, E., Mewes, H.W., Mitterbauer, R., Muehlbauer, G., Münsterkötter, M., Nelson, D., O'Donnell, K., Ouellet, T., Qi, W., Quesneville, H., Roncero, M.I.G., Seong, K.Y., Tetko, I.V., Urban, M., Waalwijk, C., Ward, T.J., Yao, J., Birren, B.W., Kistler, H.C. (2007). The Fusarium graminearum genome reveals a link between localized polymorphism and pathogen specialization. Science, [online] 317(5843), 1400-1402. http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1143708

Abstract

We sequenced and annotated the genome of the filamentous fungus Fusarium graminearum, a major pathogen of cultivated cereals. Very few repetitive sequences were detected, and the process of repeat-induced point mutation, in which duplicated sequences are subject to extensive mutation, may partially account for the reduced repeat content and apparent low number of paralogous (ancestrally duplicated) genes. A second strain of F. graminearum contained more than 10,000 single-nucleotide polymorphisms, which were frequently located near telomeres and within other discrete chromosomal segments. Many highly polymorphic regions contained sets of genes implicated in plant-fungus interactions and were unusually divergent, with higher rates of recombination. These regions of genome innovation may result from selection due to interactions of F. graminearum with its plant hosts.

Publication date

2007-09-07