Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. conglutinans race 2 54008 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.

尖孢镰刀菌物种复合体（F. oxysporum species complex）成员具备极强的遗传可塑性，可侵染多样宿主并引发极具破坏性且难以防控的病害，其宿主范围涵盖香蕉、棉花、油菜、瓜类及番茄等诸多经济作物。由Ma等人于2010年发表于《自然》的镰刀菌比较基因组学研究，揭示了谱系特异性染色体的存在：这类染色体富含转座元件，并编码致病性相关基因。该比较分析为无性致病真菌尖孢镰刀菌（Fusarium oxysporum）中占基因组25%的四条染色体的水平转移（horizontal transfer, HT）提供了证据。这些染色体对致病性的直接贡献可由以下事实佐证：它们编码已知的毒力因子，包括效应蛋白、坏死诱导肽以及大量靶向植物底物的酶类，但缺乏参与初级代谢的基因。本项目的目标是在其他引发不同植物宿主病害的尖孢镰刀菌分离株中，搜寻致病性相关染色体的存在。