Sequencing the sugarcane smut pathogen Sporisorium scitamineum SscI8. Sporisorium scitamineum strain:Ssc1

Sporisorium scitamineum (Basionym Ustilago scitaminea) is the causative agent of sugarcane smut, a disease that can cause serious losses in stalk yield due to emergence of smutted whips emerging from the top of infected plants. The disease is found worldwide in all sugarcane production areas. With the growing importance of sugarcane for bioenergy production losses due to major pathogens need to be minimized. As a first step in this direction we have sequenced the genome of S. scitamineum as a prerequisite for functional and comparative analyses. The sequenced haploid S. scitamineum strain is designated SscI8. This strain was isolated from germinated spores collected by Sharon McFarlane from sugarcane grown at Mount Edgecombe, South Africa. Strain SscI8 is able to form dikaryotic filaments when mated with compatible S. scitaminea strains and also when mated with an a1b1 strain of the maize smut fungus Ustilago maydis. Therefore SscI8 must carry an a2 mating type locus and a specificity at the b mating type locus that is different from b1. In smut fungi including S. scitamineum, mating of compatible haploid strains is prerequisite for development of the infectious form.