Home • Colletotrichum graminicola M1.001
Photo of Colletotrichum graminicola M1.001
Corn Anthracnose Glomerella graminicola. Photo by OllieMartin

This genome was sequenced by the Broad Institute.

Colletotrichum graminicola Ces. Wils. causes anthracnose stalk rot and leaf blight of maize. Maize is the dominant crop in the United States, with a value of more than 21 billion dollars in 2005, and a broad range of uses, from animal feed to sweeteners and fuel. C. graminicola is a major cause of stalk rot disease, one of the most economically important diseases of maize. Industry estimates are that stalk rots causes maize yield losses in the range of 6% annually. C. graminicola is likely to become an even more serious problem in the future, because it seems to cause a larger proportion of the stalk rots on maize engineered with the Bt transgene. C. graminicola also causes a leaf blight that is becoming increasingly important, particularly in the tropics and subtropics. C. graminicola is among the best characterized and most tractable of the Colletotrichum fungi. It is one of very few in which sexual crosses can be made (the teleomorph is Glomerella graminicola); it is easily cultured and stored; transformation and gene disruption are routine; and pathogenicity assays are straightforward. Maize, its host, is a classical genetic model as well as an important crop plant. Sequencing of the entire maize genome began in 2005 and should be completed soon. In 2006, the USDA/National Science Foundation Microbial Genome Sequencing Project National Research Initiative funded a project to sequence the genome of C. graminicola. C. graminicola strain M1.001 (also known as M2) is the first member of the Colletotrichum genus to be fully sequenced. C. graminicola strain M5.001 was sequenced to about 1X coverage by a research team at DuPont Nemours Inc. The sequence data were generously donated to the public by DuPont in 2008.

 

Genome Reference(s)