Pyrenophora graminea genome sequencing

The goal of this study is to generate and use whole genome data from representative strains of genera Bipolaris, Curvularia, Drechslera, Exserohilum,and Porocercospora to investigate generic boundaries and to develop markers to resolve cryptic complexes of important plant pathogenic species of Pleosporaceae (Dothideomycetes). Although taxonomic issues of these graminicolous species have been resolved based on conventional multigene analyses, there are several questions that remain unanswered concerning the generic and species limits. Phylogenies based on one or a few genes can be misleading with reliability of the species trees to depict actual evolutionary relationships increasing when using multiple independent loci.