Image Credit: M. Catherine Aime
Erythrobasidium hasegawianum Hamam., Sugiy. & Komag
is a reddish-pink pigmented Pucciniomycotina (Basidiomycota) yeast
species that was isolated from an old beer yeast culture in
Pennsylvania, USA. ATCC 9536 is the type and only known strain of
this species; E. hasegawianum is the only accepted species
in the genus. Erythrobasidium hasegawianum is one of the
few Pucciniomycotina yeast species for which the full life cycle
has been described. Under certain nutritional conditions E.
hasegawianum switches from the yeast state to a hyphal state;
mating is not involved. Hyphae may be either dikaryotic with clamp
connections or mononucleate without clamps. Holobasidia are formed
directly from the hyphae that produce haploid gasteroid
basidiospores. Basidiospores reproduce by budding thereby
giving rise to the yeast state.
This fungus was originally placed in Agaricomycotina, but through
ultrastructural and molecular phylogenetic studies it is now known
that, despite the production of holobasidia, E.
hasegawianum is related to the other simple-septate fungi in
Pucciniomycotina, specifically in Cystobasidiomycetes
(Erythrobasidiales, Erythrobasidiaceae). Genomic data produced for
this project will represent the first available for a member of
this class. Researchers will use these data in phylogenetic
and phylogenomic reconstructions and in comparative genomics
studies that seek to elucidate the molecular bases governing spore
dispersal and basidium formation, the production of yeast states,
and the evolution of pathogenicity in Pucciniomycotina.
If you would like to use this genome in your research, please
contact Dr. M. Catherine Aime ([email protected]) and Dr. Igor
Grigoriev ([email protected]) for permission.
References:
- Aime MC, Matheny PB, Henk DA, Frieders EM, Nilsson RH, Piepenbring M, McLaughlin DJ, Szabo LJ, Begerow D, Sampaio JP, Bauer R, Weiss M, Oberwinkler F, Hibbett DS. 2006. An overview of the higher level classification of Pucciniomycotina based on combined analyses of nuclear large and small subunit rDNA sequences. Mycologia 98: 895–905.
- Hamamoto M. 2011. Erythrobasidium Hamamoto, Sugiyama & Komagata (1991). In: The Yeasts, a Taxonomic Study. 5th edition. Eds: Kurtzman CP, Fell JW, Boekhout T. Elsevier, London, UK. Vol 3: 1433–1435.
- Yamada Y, Komagata K. 1983. Rhodotorula hasegawae sp. nov., a new asporogenous yeast species. J. Gen. Appl. Microbiol. 29:323–326.
