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.
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.
- Oberwinkler F, Bauer R, Bandoni RJ. 1990. Heterogastridiales: a new order of basidiomycetes. Mycologia 82: 48–58.