Home • Tilletiaria anomala UBC 951 v1.0
Tilletiaria anomala
Tilletiaria anomala spores. Photo credit: Merje Toome at Purdue U.
Tilletiaria anomala
Tilletiaria anomala culture on agar media. Photo credit: Merje Toome at Purdue U.

Tilletiaria anomala Bandoni & B.N. Johri is the only species in the genus Tilletiaria (Bandoni and Johri, 1972). This fungus was originally isolated from decayed wood in Canada during attempts to culture a different fungus (Poria sp.), thus its role in nature is unknown. However, since the initial isolation, T. anomala has also been detected from within the intercellular fluid of rice plants (Takahashi et al., 2011) implicating an association with plants as is true for most of the other members of Ustilaginomycotina.

Originally placed within Ustilaginales (Bandoni & Johri, 1972), T. anomala is now known to belong to Exobasidiomycetes and is closely related to several Tilletiopsis species (Takashima and Nakase, 1996; Boekhout, 2011). At present it is placed in the monotypic Tilletiariaceae within Georgefisheriales (Begerow et al., 2006). As is true for many other members of Ustilaginomycotina, T. anomala is dimorphic producing both hyphal and budding yeast stages. The hyphae are haploid but occasionally two adjacent cells will fuse to produce a dikaryon which will result in the development of a resting spore called a teliospore. Teliospores will germinate to produce phragmobasidia that form haploid basidiospores. The species is homothallic, meaning that sexual reproduction can be completed within a single thallus without the need for a partner.

The genome sequence of T. anomala will provide the first whole genome sequence data for any member of Georgefisheriales. Tilletiaria anomala will also represent the first homothallic species of Ustilaginomycotina with genome data, which researchers may use to better understand the evolution of reproductive systems in fungi.

If you would like to use this genome in your research, you are kindly requested to please contact Dr. M. Catherine Aime ([email protected]) and Dr. Igor Grigoriev ([email protected]) for permission.

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Genome Reference(s)