Fusarium odoratissimum NRRL 54006 Genome sequencing and assembly

Members of the F. oxysporum species complex exhibit extraordinary genetic plasticity and cause some of the most destructive and intractable diseases across a diverse spectrum of hosts, including many economically important crops such as banana, cotton, canola, melons, and tomato. The Fusarium Comparative Genomics Project (Ma et al, Nature 2010) highlighted the existence of lineage-specific chromosomes that are enriched for transposable elements and encode genes that are pathogenicity related. The comparative analysis provides evidence for the horizontal transfer (HT) of four chromosomes accounting for 25% of the genome in an asexual, pathogenic fungal species, Fusarium oxysporum. The direct contribution of the chromosomes to pathogenicity is indicated by the fact that they encode known virulence factors such as effector proteins, necrosis-inducing peptides and a large array of enzymes targeting plant substrates, but lack genes involved in primary metabolism. The objective of this project is to search for the presence of pathogenicity related chromosomes in other F. oxysporum isolates that cause disease in different plant hosts.

Fusarium oxysporum物种复群成员展现出非凡的遗传可塑性，并引起多种宿主，包括许多经济作物如香蕉、棉花、油菜、瓜类和番茄等，所遭受的极具破坏性和难以治疗的疾病。Fusarium比较基因组学项目（Ma等，Nature 2010年）突显了存在具有谱系特异性的染色体，这些染色体富含转座元件，并编码与致病性相关的基因。比较分析为在无性繁殖、致病的真菌物种Fusarium oxysporum中，四种染色体水平转移（HT）提供了证据，这四种染色体占基因组总量的25%。染色体对致病性的直接贡献体现在它们编码已知的致病力因子，如效应蛋白、诱导坏死肽和大量针对植物底物的酶类，但缺乏参与初级代谢的基因。本项目的目标是寻找在其他引起不同植物宿主疾病的Fusarium oxysporum分离株中存在与致病性相关的染色体的证据。