The genome sequence and gene predictions of Rozella allomycis were not determined by the JGI, but were downloaded from NCBI and have been published (James TY et al., 2013). Please note that this copy of the genome is not maintained by the author and is therefore not automatically updated.
Rozella allomycis is the first member of the recently described phylum Cryptomycota (Jones et al. 2011a) to have its genome sequenced. The genus Rozella is mostly known to parasitize water molds, and R. allomycis is an obligate parasite of the Blastocladiomycotan fungus Allomyces. The phylum is otherwise known exclusively from a large number of environmental DNA sequences produced in aquatic, marine, and other habitats (Jones et al. 2011b; Lara et al. 2011). R. allomycis grows within the host as naked protoplasm, and reproduces through the production of ephemeral zoosporangia or chitinous, thick-walled resting sporangia. The parasite requires the host to produce the cell wall of the zoosporangium, which at maturity cleave into numerous zoospores with a single flagellum. The zoospore, upon finding a suitable host, retracts its flagellum, develops a cell wall, and injects its cytoplasm into the host. The parasite protoplasm is suspected of being capable of phagocytosing the host's cytoplasm (Powell 1984). The ancestral characteristic of phagotrophy as well as phylogenetic analyses have placed the Cryptomycota at the base of the fungal tree (James et al. 2006). Recently, the analysis of the genome sequence of Rozella suggested that Cryptomycota and the obligate eukaryotic parasites known as Microsporidia are related (James et al. 2013). Microsporidia are well known for their fast rate of evolution, including loss of the mitochondrion and reduction of nuclear genome size. Shared characteristics of Cryptomycota and Microsporidia include presence of a chitinous cell wall, growth inside the host as a naked protoplasm, presence of ATP transport proteins acquired from Chlamydia, and remarkably little else.
Genome Reference(s)
James TY, Pelin A, Bonen L, Ahrendt S, Sain D, Corradi N, Stajich JE
Shared signatures of parasitism and phylogenomics unite Cryptomycota and microsporidia.
Curr Biol. 2013 Aug 19;23(16):1548-53. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2013.06.057
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