Home • Pleosporaceae sp. PMI_138 v1.0
Pleosporaceae sp. PMI_138
Colony of Pleosporaceae sp. PMI_138 growing on PDA medium. Image by Alejandro Rojas.
Pleosporaceae sp. PMI_138
Pycnidia with mycelia outgrowth. Image by Alejandro Rojas.

In the “1KFG: Deep Sequencing of Ecologically-relevant Dikarya” project (CSP1974), we aim to sequence additional sampling of genomic diversity within keystone lineages of plant-interacting fungi and saprophytic fungi that are of special ecological importance for understanding terrestrial ecosystems. In addition, comparative genome analysis with saprotrophic, mycorrhizal and pathogenic fungi will provide new insights into the specific and conserved adaptations associated with each fungal lifestyle.

Pleosporales is an order in the class Dothideomycetes. Members in this group are often described as endophytic or epiphytic fungi, some species are plant pathogens and saprophytes.  Most members produce a peritheciod ascomata surviving in the branches of trees during the winter, avoiding drying and other extreme conditions. In the case of PMI_138, this fungus was isolated from Populus roots as an endophyte and based on rDNA is associated with the genus Plenodomus, a former section of Phoma species divided into new genera (de Gruyter et al. 2013), which contains some species associated with root rot disease or saprophytic species. Most members of these former sections of Phoma are quite complex and this large group of Pleosporalean fungi are subject to periodical reviews accommodating new DNA sequence data and phylogenetic reassessment of new specimens and ex-type or other reference strains. Similar species have been described as endophytes of other plants and have been found to be quite abundant on other plants (Glynou et al. 2016).

This work is supported by the Genomic Science Program (U.S. Department of Energy) Plant Microbe Interfaces (PMI) Scientific Focus Area (http://pmi.ornl.gov) and by the Joint Genome Institute (U.S. Department of Energy) through their Community Sequencing Program (CSP 1974, 1KFG: Deep Sequencing of Ecologically-relevant Dikarya, F. Martin PI). Researchers who wish to publish analyses using data from unpublished CSP genomes are respectfully required to contact the PI and JGI to avoid potential conflicts on data use and coordinate other publications with the CSP master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).

References

Bonito, G., Hameed, K., Ventura, R., Krishnan, J., Schadt, C.W. and Vilgalys, R., 2016. Isolating a functionally relevant guild of fungi from the root microbiome of Populus. Fungal ecology, 22, pp.35-42.

de Gruyter, J., Woudenberg, J. H., Aveskamp, M. M., Verkley, G. J., Groenewald, J. Z., & Crous, P. W. (2013). Redisposition of phoma-like anamorphs in Pleosporales. Studies in mycology, 75(1), 1–36. doi:10.3114/sim0004.

Glynou, K., Ali, T., Buch, A., Haghi Kia, S., Ploch, S., Xia, X., Çelik, A., Thines, M. and Maciá‐Vicente, J. G. (2016), Continental‐scale distribution of root endophytes. Environ Microbiol, 18: 2418-2434. doi:10.1111/1462-2920.13112.