Comparative Genome Sequencing of Australian Puccinia graminis tritici races. Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici

The CSIRO Plant Industry, Australia in collaboration with MIT through The Broad Institute is sequencing genomes of four Australian races Puccinia graminis tritici, the stem rust fungi pathogen of wheat. CSIRO is carrying out research to identify avirulence/effector proteins of P. graminis tritici. For this, CSIRO will use deep sequencing technologies to identify polymorphic fungi genes expressed during infection and encoding secreted proteins. MIT will also use these technologies to test the feasibility of characterizing the secretome of the parasitic fungus by direct sequencing cDNA copies of genes expressed in haustoria of P. graminis tritici. MIT through The Broad Institute has expertise and technology for analysing fungal genome sequences and has produced the first complete genome sequence of P. graminis tritici. Both CSIRO and MIT are collaborating to produce the genomic sequence for four Australian races of P. graminis tritici to determine levels of polymorphisms, particularly in genes expressed during infection and encoding secreted proteins.