Microbotryum violaceum Database

Microbotryum violaceum p1A1 Lamole

Microbotryum violaceum is an experimentally tractable heterobasidiomycete fungal pathogen; it is an obligate biotroph which must complete its life cycle in a host plant. Dark teliospore masses give infected flowers a "smutted" appearance, thus the name "another smut". The disease sterilizes but does not kill the host plant, and infecting teliospores are spread between plants by pollinating insects [1]. M. violaceum provides an exciting system to study the evolution of host/pathogen interactions in wild, non-agricultural environments [1, 2], where host populations are more heterogeneous than for agricultural pathogens. M. violaceum also serves as a model for emerging infectious disease through host shifts [2], for studying the evolution of sexual systems and sex chromosomes [3], and for identifying genes involved in pathogeneticity [4].

Funding for the M. violaceum sequencing project was provided by the National Science Foundation.

Citations

  1. Alexander, H.M., An experimental field study of anther-smut disease of Silene alba caused by Ustilago violacea: genotypic variation and disease incidence. Evolution, 1989. 43: p. 835-847.
  2. Antonovics, J., M.E. Hood, and J. Partain, The ecology and genetics of host shift: Microbotryum as a model system. American Naturalist, 2002. 160: p. S40-S53.
  3. Hood, M.E., J. Antonovics, and B. Koskella, Shared forces of sex chromosome evolution in haploid-mating and diploid-mating organisms: Microbotryum violaceum and other model organisms. Genetics, 2004. 168(1): p. 141-6.
  4. Hughes, C.F. and M.H. Perlin, Differential expression of mepA, mepC and smtE during growth and development of Microbotryum violaceum. Mycologia, 2005. 97(3): p. 605-11.

Project information

The Microbotryum violaceum sequencing project is part of the Broad Institute Fungal Genome Initiative. Its goal is to release an annotated assembly using 20X 454 sequence coverage for Microbotryum violaceum. Genomic DNA for sequencing was provided by Dr. Michael Perlin at the University of Louisville.

Our specific aims are as follows:

  1. Generate 20X coverage of the Microbotryum violaceum genome through whole genome shotgun sequencing and generate a high quality genome assembly.
  2. Perform automated annotation of the sequence assembly.
  3. Generate RNA-sequence of diverse samples to improve gene annotation and measure expression.
  4. Distribute the sequence assembly and results of our annotation and analysis through a freely accessible, public web server at the Broad and by deposition of the sequence assembly in GenBank.

Project Leadership

  • Michael Perlin, University of Louisville
  • David Schultz, University of Louisville
  • Christina Cuomo, Broad Institute

What is Microbotryum violaceum?

Microbotryum violaceum is an experimentally tractable heterobasidiomycete fungal pathogen; it is an obligate biotroph which must complete its life cycle in a host plant. Dark teliospore masses give infected flowers a "smutted" appearance, thus the name "another smut". The disease sterilizes but does not kill the host plant, and infecting teliospores are spread between plants by pollinating insects [1]. M. violaceum provides an exciting system to study the evolution of host/pathogen interactions in 'wild', non-agricultural environments [1, 2], where host populations are more heterogeneous than for agricultural pathogens. M. violaceum also serves as a model for emerging infectious disease through host shifts [2], for studying the evolution of sexual systems and sex chromosomes [3], and for identifying genes involved in pathogeneticity [4].

Funding for the M. violaceum sequencing project was provided by the National Science Foundation.

References

  1. Alexander, H.M., An experimental field study of anther-smut disease of Silene alba caused by Ustilago violacea: genotypic variation and disease incidence. Evolution, 1989. 43: p. 835-847.
  2. Antonovics, J., M.E. Hood, and J. Partain, The ecology and genetics of host shift: Microbotryum as a model system. American Naturalist, 2002. 160: p. S40-S53.
  3. Hood, M.E., J. Antonovics, and B. Koskella, Shared forces of sex chromosome evolution in haploid-mating and diploid-mating organisms: Microbotryum violaceum and other model organisms. Genetics, 2004. 168(1): p. 141-6.
  4. Hughes, C.F. and M.H. Perlin, Differential expression of mepA, mepC and smtE during growth and development of Microbotryum violaceum. Mycologia, 2005. 97(3): p. 605-11.