Identification of Highly Variable Supernumerary Chromosome Segments in an Asexual Pathogen

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2016-01-01
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Huang, Xiaoqiu
Das, Anindya
Sahu, Binod
Srivastava, Subodh
Leandro, Leonor
O'Donnell, Kerry
Bhattacharyya, Madan
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Huang, Xiaoqiu
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Plant Pathology and Microbiology
The Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology and the Department of Entomology officially merged as of September 1, 2022. The new department is known as the Department of Plant Pathology, Entomology, and Microbiology (PPEM). The overall mission of the Department is to benefit society through research, teaching, and extension activities that improve pest management and prevent disease. Collectively, the Department consists of about 100 faculty, staff, and students who are engaged in research, teaching, and extension activities that are central to the mission of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. The Department possesses state-of-the-art research and teaching facilities in the Advanced Research and Teaching Building and in Science II. In addition, research and extension activities are performed off-campus at the Field Extension Education Laboratory, the Horticulture Station, the Agriculture Engineering/Agronomy Farm, and several Research and Demonstration Farms located around the state. Furthermore, the Department houses the Plant and Insect Diagnostic Clinic, the Iowa Soybean Research Center, the Insect Zoo, and BugGuide. Several USDA-ARS scientists are also affiliated with the Department.
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Computer SciencePlant Pathology and MicrobiologyAgronomy
Abstract

Supernumerary chromosome segments are known to harbor different transposons from their essential counterparts. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of transposons in the origin and evolution of supernumerary segments in the asexual fungal pathogen Fusarium virguliforme. We compared the genomes of 11 isolates comprising six Fusarium species that cause soybean sudden death syndrome (SDS) or bean root rot (BRR), and identified significant levels of genetic variation in A+T-rich repeat blocks of the essential chromosomes and in A+T-neutral regions of the supernumerary segments. The A+T-rich repeat blocks in the essential chromosomes were highly variable between F. virguliforme and non-F. virguliforme isolates, but were scarcely variable between F. virguliforme isolates. The A+T-neutral regions in the supernumerary segments, however, were highly variable between F. virguliforme isolates, with a statistically significant number (21 standard deviations above the mean) of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). And supernumerary sequence types and rearrangement patterns of some F. virguliforme isolates were present in an isolate of F. cuneirostrum but not in the other F. virguliforme isolates. The most variable and highly expressed region in the supernumerary segments contained an active DNA transposon that was a most conserved match between F. virguliforme and the unrelated fungus Tolypocladium inflatum. This transposon was absent from two of the F. virguliforme isolates. Furthermore, transposons in the supernumerary segments of some F. virguliforme isolates were present in non-F. virguliforme isolates, but were absent from the other F. virguliforme isolates. Two supernumerary P450 enzymes were 43% and 57% identical to their essential counterparts. This study has raised the possibility that transposons generate genetic variation in supernumerary chromosome segments by frequent horizontal transfer within and between closely related species.

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This is an article from PLoS One 11 (2016): e0158183, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0158183

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