Home • Paraphoma chrysanthemicola MPI-GEGE-AT-0034 v1.0
Paraphoma chrysanthemicola growing in the lab.
Paraphoma chrysanthemicola growing in the lab.
Image Credit: Stephane Hacquard

This genome was sequenced as part of the 1000 Fungal Genomes Project - Deep Sequencing of Ecologically-relevant Dikarya, and more specifically as part of the Endophyte Genome Sequencing project, which seeks to sequence members of diverse lineages of endophytic species found in Arabidopsis, Populus and other plants to examine the functional diversity of fungi with a shared evolutionary history.

Paraphoma (Ascomycota phylum, Dothideomycetes class, Pleosporales order) is a genus of common soil fungi that differs from Phoma according to morphological characteristics and molecular phylogeny (Gruyter et al. 2010). Different fungal lifestyles have been reported within this genus, ranging along the saprotroph-pathogen continuum. Although Paraphoma chrysanthemicola can infect the leaves of specific plant species and provoke disease (Ge et al. 2016), the fungus can also live benignly in asymptomatic plant tissues and has been detected or isolated from the roots of healthy plants (Zhang et al. 2012, Wehner et al. 2014, Yokoya et al. 2017). The fungus belongs to the group of dark septate endophytes, a polyphyletic aggregate of fungi that differentiate melanised and septate hyphae (Porras-Alfaro and Bayman 2011). The sequenced Paraphoma chrysanthemicola MPI-GEGE-AT-0034 has been isolated from healthy Arabidopsis thaliana plants grown in natural soil after surface sterilization of plant roots. The sequencing of this fungal isolate is part of a larger project aiming at sequencing the genomes of numerous phylogenetically diverse root-associated fungi from Arabidopsis, Populus, and other plant hosts for further comparative genome analysis. Unravelling the genomic signatures reflecting the adaptation of these microbes to the host cell environment represent a promising way to better understand how the endophytic lifestyle evolved in phylogenetically unrelated fungal species. Comparative genome analysis between different plant hosts, and between saprotrophic, mycorrhizal, and pathogenic fungi will provide new insights into the specific adaptations but also the conserved signatures associated with these different lifestyles.

Researchers who wish to publish analyses using data from unpublished CSP genomes are respectfully required to contact the PI and JGI to avoid potential conflicts on data use and coordinate other publications with the CSP master paper(s).

 

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