Computational Biology
@ Comenius University in Bratislava

Sheng Zhu, You-Zhi Cao, Cong Jiang, Bi-Yue Tan, Zhong Wang, Sisi Feng, Liang Zhang, Xiao-Hua Su, Brona Brejova, Tomas Vinar, Meng Xu, Ming-Xiu Wang, Shou-Gong Zhang, Min-Ren Huang, Rongling Wu, Yan Zhou. Sequencing the genome of Marssonina brunnea reveals fungus-poplar co-evolution. BMC genomics, 13:382. 2012.

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Download from publisher: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2164/13/382

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Abstract:

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: The fungus Marssonina brunnea is a causal pathogen of
Marssonina leaf spot that devastates poplar plantations by defoliating
susceptible trees before normal fall leaf drop. RESULTS: We sequence the genome
of M. brunnea with a size of 52 Mb assembled into 89 scaffolds, representing the 
first sequenced Dermateaceae genome. By inoculating this fungus onto a poplar
hybrid clone, we investigate how M. brunnea interacts and co-evolves with its
host to colonize poplar leaves. While a handful of virulence genes in M. brunnea,
mostly from the LysM family, are detected to up-regulate during infection, the
poplar down-regulates its resistance genes, such as nucleotide binding site
domains and leucine rich repeats, in response to infection. From 10,027 predicted
proteins of M. brunnea in a comparison with those from poplar, we identify four
poplar transferases that stimulate the host to resist M. brunnea. These
transferas-encoding genes may have driven the co-evolution of M. brunnea and
Populus during the process of infection and anti-infection. CONCLUSIONS: Our
results from the draft sequence of the M. brunnea genome provide evidence for
genome-genome interactions that play an important role in poplar-pathogen
co-evolution. This knowledge could help to design effective strategies for
controlling Marssonina leaf spot in poplar.