Rachicladosporium antarcticum, MNA-CCFEE 5527: torulose, branched hyphae and enteroblastic proliferation (arrows). Scale bar = 20 µm. Image Credit: Claudia Coleine

The Rachicladosporium antarcticum CCFEE 5527 genome sequence and gene models were not determined by the Joint Genome Institute (JGI) but were downloaded from Ensembl Fungi on Apr 11, 2020. Please note that this copy of the genome is not maintained by Ensembl and is therefore not automatically updated. In order to allow comparative analyses with other fungal genomes sequenced by the JGI, a copy of this genome is incorporated into MycoCosm. The JGI Annotation Pipeline was used to add the functional annotation to this genome.

Rachicladosporium antarcticum CCFEE 5527 is a rock-inhabiting fungus. This endolithic strain were isolated from inside rocks collected from the Antarctic Peninsula. Black meristematic fungi are a morph-ecological group of ascomycetes with a peculiar tendency to the extremes and are characterized by melanin pigmentation. They are typical and abundant members of Antarctic cryptoendolithic communities. The draft genome sequence of the Antarctic fungus Rachicladosporium antarcticum MNA-CCFEE 5527 was sequenced to provide genome resources to study fungal adaptation to extreme environments and endolithic lifestyles.
The fungus was provided by the Culture Collection of Fungi from Extreme Environments of the Mycological Section of the Italian Antarctic National Museum (MNA-CCFEE).