Home • Rhamphospora nymphaeae CBS 172.38 v1.0
Rhamphospora nymphaeae culture on PDA. Bar = 5 mm. Photo by: Teeratas Kijpornyongpan.
Rhamphospora nymphaeae culture on PDA. Bar = 5 mm. Photo by: Teeratas Kijpornyongpan.

Smut fungi are teliospore-forming plant pathogens belonging to the basidiomycetous early-diverging lineage Ustilaginomycotina. Smut-like fungi comprise seven of the 15 orders of the subphylum (Kijpornyongpan et al. 2018). Most described smuts belong to two orders, Ustilaginales and Tilletiales, and infect graminaceous plant hosts. However, members of other smut lineages can infect a broad range of hosts in several monocot and dicot families (Begerow et al. 2014). Doassansiales is a small order in Ustilaginomycotina, with ca. 40 species classified in 13 genera (Vánky 2012). Most members of this order are pathogenic on different groups of aquatic plants. Rhamphosporaceae, a family in Doassansiales, contains the single genus Rhamphospora D.D. Cunn. (1888). The genus is monotypic with the only described species R. nymphaeae as a smut fungus on water-lilies (Nymphaea spp.).

The genome sequence of R. nymphaeae will provide the first reference genome for a member of Rhamphosporaceae, Doassansiales. Researchers will use these data in phylogenetic and phylogenomic reconstructions and in comparative genomics studies that attempt to elucidate the molecular bases governing of pathogenic mechanisms, and the evolution of phytopathogenicity in Ustilaginomycotina.

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:

Begerow D, Schäfer AM, Kellner R, Yurkov A, Kemler M, Oberwinkler F, Bauer R. 2014. Ustilaginomycotina. PP 295–329 In: The Mycota. Vol. VII Part A. Systematics and Evolution. 2nd Ed. McLaughlin DJ, Spatafora JW (Eds.) Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
Cunningham DD. 1888. On a new genus of the Family Ustilagineae. Scientific Memoirs by Medical Officers of the Army in India 3: 27–32.

Kijpornyongpan T, Mondo SJ, Barry K, Sandor L, Lee J, Lipzen A, Pangilinan J, LaButti K, Hainaut M, Henrissat H, Grigoriev IV, Aime MC. 2018. Broad Genomic Sampling Reveals a Smut Pathogenic Ancestry of the Fungal Clade Ustilaginomycotina. Molecular Biology and Evolution 109(8):1127-39. doi: 10.1007/s10482-016-0715-4.

Vánky. 2012. Smut fungi of the world. APS Press, St. Paul.