Comparative genomics reveals mobile pathogenicity chromosomes in Fusarium

Journal Article · Thu Mar 18 04:00:00 EDT 2010 · Nature, 464:367-373

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08850· OSTI ID:992359

Ma, Li Jun; van der Does, H C; Borkovich, Katherine A; Coleman, Jeffrey J; Daboussi, Marie-Jose; Di Pietro, Antonio; Dufresne, Marie; Freitag, Michael; Grabherr, Manfred; Henrissat, Bernard; Houterman, Petra M; Kang, Seogchan; Shim, Won-Bo; Wolochuk, Charles; Xie, Xiaohui; Xu, Jin Rong; Antoniw, John; Baker, Scott E; Bluhm, Burton H; Breakspear, Andrew ; Brown, Daren W; Butchko, Robert A; Chapman, Sinead; Coulson, Richard; Coutinho, Pedro M; Danchin, Etienne G; Diener, Andrew; Gale, Liane R; Gardiner, Donald; Goff, Steven; Hammond-Kossack, Kim; Hilburn, Karen; Hua-Van, Aurelie; Jonkers, Wilfried; Kazan, Kemal; Kodira, Chinnappa D; Koehrsen, Michael; Kumar, Lokesh; Lee, Yong Hwan; Li, Liande; Manners, John M; Miranda-Saavedra, Diego; Mukherjee, Mala; Park, Gyungsoon; Park, Jongsun; Park, Sook Young; Proctor, Robert H; Regev, Aviv; Ruiz-Roldan, M C; Sain, Divya; Sakthikumar, Sharadha; Sykes, Sean; Schwartz, David C; Turgeon, Barbara G; Wapinski, Ilan; Yoder, Olen; Young, Sarah; Zeng, Qiandong; Zhou, Shiguo; Galagan, James; Cuomo, Christina A; Kistler, H Corby; Rep, Martijn

Fusarium species are among the most important phytopathogenic and toxigenic fungi, having significant impact on crop production and animal health. Distinctively, members of the F. oxysporum species complex exhibit wide host range but discontinuously distributed host specificity, reflecting remarkable genetic adaptability. To understand the molecular underpinnings of diverse phenotypic traits and their evolution in Fusarium, we compared the genomes of three economically important and phylogenetically related, yet phenotypically diverse plant-pathogenic species, F. graminearum, F. verticillioides and F. oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici. Our analysis revealed greatly expanded lineage-specific (LS) genomic regions in F. oxysporum that include four entire chromosomes, accounting for more than one-quarter of the genome. LS regions are rich in transposons and genes with distinct evolutionary profiles but related to pathogenicity. Experimentally, we demonstrate for the first time the transfer of two LS chromosomes between strains of F. oxysporum, resulting in the conversion of a non-pathogenic strain into a pathogen. Transfer of LS chromosomes between otherwise genetically isolated strains explains the polyphyletic origin of host specificity and the emergence of new pathogenic lineages in the F. oxysporum species complex, putting the evolution of fungal pathogenicity into a new perspective.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 992359
• Report Number(s): PNNL-SA-70493; BM0102070
• Journal Information: Nature, 464:367-373, Journal Name: Nature, 464:367-373 Vol. 464
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
ANIMALS
CHROMOSOMES
CROPS
FUNGI
FUSARIUM
Fusarium
genome
fungi
fungal
GENES
GENETICS
ORIGIN
PRODUCTION
SPECIFICITY
STRAINS
TRANSPOSONS