Home • Heterodoassansia hygrophilae CBS 346.65 v1.0
Heterodoassansia hygrophilae culture on PDA. Bar = 5 mm. Photo: Teeratas Kijpornyongpan.
Heterodoassansia hygrophilae culture on PDA. Bar = 5 mm. Photo: Teeratas Kijpornyongpan.

Smut fungi are teliospore-forming plant pathogens belonging to the basidiomycetous early-diverging lineage Ustilaginomycotina. Smut-like fungi comprise seven of the 15 orders of the subphylum (Kijpornyongpan et al. 2018 in press). Most described smuts belong to two orders, Ustilaginales and Tilletiales, and infect graminaceous plant hosts.  However, members of other smut lineages can infect a broad range of hosts in several monocot and dicot families (Begerow et al. 2014).

Doassansiales is a small order in Ustilaginomycotina, with ca. 40 species classified in 13 genera (Vánky 2012). Most members of this order are pathogenic on different groups of aquatic plants. Heterodoassansia hygrophilae (Thirum.) Vánky (2006) is a smut fungus of swampweeds (Hygrophila spp.).

The genome sequence of H. hygrophilae will provide the first reference genome for a member of Doassansiaceae, Doassansiales. Researchers will use these data in phylogenetic and phylogenomic reconstructions and in comparative genomics studies that attempt to elucidate the molecular features governing pathogenesis, and the evolution of phytopathogenicity in Ustilaginomycotina.

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:
Begerow D, Schäfer AM, Kellner R, Yurkov A, Kemler M, Oberwinkler F, Bauer R. 2014. Ustilaginomycotina. PP 295–329 In: The Mycota. Vol. VII Part A. Systematics and Evolution. 2nd Ed. McLaughlin DJ, Spatafora JW (Eds.) Springer-Verlag, Berlin.

Kijpornyongpan T, Mondo SJ, Barry K, Sandor L, Lee J, Lipzen A, Pangilinan J, LaButti K, Hainaut M, Henrissat H, Grigoriev IV, Aime MC. 2018. Broad Genomic Sampling Reveals a Smut Pathogenic Ancestry of the Fungal Clade Ustilaginomycotina. Molecular Biology and Evolution.

Vánky K. 2006. Taxonomic studies on Ustilaginomycetes-26. Mycotaxon 95: 1–65.

Vánky K. 2012. Smut fungi of the world. APS Press, St. Paul.