Aureobasidium pullulans biocontrol mechanisms; genome, transcriptome & secretome analyses

Aureobasidium pullulans is being studied with respect to its biotechnological applications in the degradation and modification of lignocellulose substrates or the production of the polysaccharide pullulan. In addition, the species is also used as a commercial plant protection agent against the bacterial pome fruit disease fireblight or against fungal postharvest diseases of fruits.The A. pullulans strain NBB 7.2.1 was originally isolated from a soil sample (from a Swiss orchard), but it was shown to be more competitive on apples than in soil (Gross et al., 2018). The antifungal activity of the isolate NBB 7.2.1 against fungal plant pathogens, and filamentous fungi in general, was assessed: Among 40 different yeasts, it belonged to the most strongly antifungal isolates (Hilber-Bodmer et al., 2017).The genome of A. pullulans NBB 7.2.1 was sequenced and de novo assembled by Agroscope using a combination of long reads from Pacific Biosciences Sequel technology and Illumina MiSeq short read data and subsequently annotated by JGI. The high quality genome sequence (comprising 12 chromosomes and one circular mitogenome) serves as the foundation for identifying the underlying molecular mechanisms that confer antifungal activity and to determine which factors may be targeted to improve the reliability and efficacy of A. pullulans as a plant protection agent in the field and under storage conditions.