Home • Heterogastridium pycnidioideum ATCC MYA-4631 v1.0
Heterogastridium pycnidioideum
Heterogastridium pycnidioideum.
Image Credit: Dr. M. Catherine Aime

Heterogastridium pycnidioideum Oberw. & R. Bauer is a Pucciniomycotina (Basidiomycota) species that parasitizes other fungi, most often isolated from mushroom-forming fungi and fungi associated with decaying plant material. During the parasitic stage H. pycnidioideum produces pycnidioid fruiting bodies that contain either asexual dikaryotic conidia or highly unusual tetraradiate basidiospores on phragmobasidia of the transversely septate, auricularioid type.


Heterogastridium pycnidioideum belongs to Microbotryomycetes (Heterogastridiales, Heterogastridiaceae), a class that contains other mycoparasitic as well as plant pathogenic fungi. However, only members of Heterogastridiales are known to form fruiting bodies. Additionally, the majority of fungi in Microbotryomycetes have a yeast state, whereas no budding stage is known for H. pycnidioideum. Genomic data produced for this project will represent the first available for a member of Heterogastridiales.  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 mechanisms, 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.

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