Program Book - 27th Fungal Genetics Conference

FULL POSTER SESSION ABSTRACTSResearch and Biocomputing, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR.FungiDB (http://FungiDB.org) is a functional genomic database and website tool for fungal genomes to enable data mining and analyses of the panfungalgenomic resources. The resource was developed in partnership with the Eukaryotic Pathogen Bioinformatic Resource Center (http://EuPathDB.org).Using the same infrastructure and user interface as EuPathDB, FungiDB allows for sophisticated and integrated searches to be performed over an intuitivegraphical system. The new 2.2 release contains sequence and annotation for over 50 species spanning the Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, Zygomycota, andChytrid fungi; including pathogenic species from the Cryptococcus, Histoplasma, and Coccidiodes genera. Six Oomycete genomes from Phytophthora andPythium species and RNA-Seq data are also included in the release of the system. Data from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Candida albicans, Aspergillusnidulans, and Neurospora crassa represent the latest annotation releases of these genomes.Functional genomics data is available for querying including gene expression data from microarray, RNA-Seq, and expressed sequence tags; yeast twohybrid interaction data; and gene ontology from curated and automated sources. New features in the 2.2 release include population genomics data ofSNPs for several ascomycetes including A. fumigatus. A user interface to the precomputed orthology and paralogy of complete gene sets from thesupported fungal genomes along with key metazoan, plant, microbial eukaryotes, and bacteria enable phylogenetic profiling across the tree of life. Thedata-mining interface also permits the ability to make inferences using functional data in one species transformed by orthology into another species,providing a powerful resource for in silico experimentation. Query strategies from the system can be saved and shared as web links to enable reproducibleresults. FungiDB is supported by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.339. Letters from the front: The Microbotryum violaceum genome and transcriptome project. Su San Toh 1 , Jared Andrews 1 , Sébastien Duplessis 2 , DavidTreves 3 , Christina Cuomo 4 , David Schultz 1 , Michael Perlin 1 . 1) University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, USA; 2) Centre INRA de Nancy, Champenoux, France; 3)Indiana University Southeast, New Albany, Indiana, USA; 4) Broad Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.Microbotryum violaceum is a fungal species complex that includes related smut species primarily infecting members of the Caryophyllaceae (pinks).Individual species of this group are limited to successful infection and reproduction on a specific host species. We have produced a draft sequence at 18xcoverage for a haploid strain derived from meiosis of teliospores isolated from the host Silene latifolia. The draft sequence is currently in the process ofannotation and is publicly available through a website at the Broad Institute. Using Illumina Next Gen sequencing, we are generating deep transcriptomeinformation about a variety of stages in the lifecycle of the fungus, with particular emphasis on the late stages of infection, where teliosporogenesisoccurs. Through the analysis we have performed so far, we were able to identify a suite of secreted proteins (SPs) that are potentially involved in hostpathogeninteractions. Some of these include plant cell degradation enzymes like pectinesterase, laccase, subtilase and glycoside hydrolase. Moreover,some of these SPs are small, unique and cysteine-rich proteins, that might be involved in pathogenicity. Finally, since no reliable transformation system hasbeen adapted for this fungus and, as a consequence, no targeted gene disruption has been demonstrated, we are developing constructs that rely on thenewly completed genome to devise new strategies to allow such functional analyses in the future.340. The Aspergillus and Candida Genome Databases: Recent Developments and Future Plans. Martha B. Arnaud 1 , Gustavo C. Cerqueira 2 , Diane O.Inglis 1 , Marek S. Skrzypek 1 , Jonathan Binkley 1 , Clinton Howarth 2 , Prachi Shah 1 , Farrell Wymore 1 , Gail Binkley 1 , Stuart R. Miyasato 1 , Matt Simison 1 , GavinSherlock 1 , Jennifer Russo Wortman 2 . 1) Dept. of Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA; 2) Broad Institute, Cambridge, MA.The Aspergillus and Candida Genome Databases (AspGD, http://www.aspgd.org and CGD, http://www.candidagenome.org/) are freely available, webbasedresources for researchers studying the molecular biology of these fungi. The interfaces of both web sites and databases now provide streamlined,ortholog-based navigation of the genomic and functional annotation for multiple species concurrently. We have completed manual curation of thepublished literature about multiple Candida and Aspergillus species. As part of our community-oriented mission, we also provide resources to fosterinteraction and dissemination of community information, tools, and data, including collecting, archiving, and providing large-scale datasets for download.AspGD also offers a full-featured genomics viewer to facilitate comparative genomics analysis. We have added new servers to improve web siteperformance and page loading speeds. Areas of future expansion include incorporation and curation of additional species, as well as improvements to thereference genome sequences and gene sets, utilizing high-throughput sequence to correct errors in sequence and gene structure, and display of additionalregulatory elements and gene products, including alternate splice forms. We also plan to develop and incorporate improved tools for query, display andanalysis of data, especially large-scale and comparative data such as gene synteny and the evolution of genes and gene substructure (e.g., intron gain andloss). We welcome, encourage, and appreciate your questions, feedback or suggestions. AspGD and CGD curators can be reached at aspergilluscurator@lists.stanford.eduand candida-curator@lists.stanford.edu, respectively. AspGD is funded by grant R01 AI077599 from the National Institute ofAllergy and Infectious Diseases, and CGD is funded by R01 DE015873 from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research at the US NationalInstitutes of Health.341. The Trichoderma reesei polyketide synthase gene pks1 is necessary for yellow-green pigmentation of conidia and is involved in the establishmentof environmental fitness. Lea Atanasova 1 , Benjamin P. Knox 2 , Christian P. Kubicek 1 , Scott E. Baker 2 , Irina S. Druzhinina 1 . 1) Microbiology Group, ResearchArea Biotechnology and Microbiology, Institute of Chemical Engineering, Vienna University of Technology, 1060 Vienna, Austria; 2) Chemical and BiologicalProcess Development Group, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, USA.The economically important genus Trichoderma (Hypocreales, Ascomycota, Dikarya) is well known for its mycotrophic lifestyle and for the broad range ofbiotrophic interactions with plants and animals. Moreover it contains several cosmopolitan species characterized by their outstanding environmentalopportunism. These properties have given rise to the use of several species in agriculture as biopesticides and biofertilizers while T. reesei is applied forproduction of bioenergy-related enzymes. The molecular basis of the opportunistic success of Trichoderma is not yet well understood. While there is someevidence for a role of secreted enzymes and proteins, less is known about a possible role of secondary metabolites. Recently it was predicted that the PKSencoding gene pks1 from T. reesei and its orthologues are most likely responsible for the characteristic yellow-green pigmentation of conidia. To reveal thefull function of the gene we deleted it from the wild-type strain QM 6a what resulted in complete loss of the green coloration of conidia. Theecophysiological profiling of Dpks1 showed that the gene is also involved in multiple functions at different stages of the T. reesei life cycle. Testing theantagonistic antifungal potential of the T. reesei Dpks1 mutant against several host/prey fungi suggested that the loss of pks1 reduced the ability tocombat them by means of both mechanisms: the pre-contact inhibition and direct overgrowth. However the overall analysis of mycoparasitic interactionssuggests that the gene is most likely involved in protection against other fungi rather than in attacking them. Interestingly, we noticed the increasedproduction of volatile compounds by the Dpks1 strains. The phenotype microarrays showed that PKS1 encoding gene restricts T. reesei from conidiation ona number of the best utilized carbon sources but does not influence the sexual development except the alteration of stromata pigmentation. The data fortranscriptional response of genes putatively involved in above mentioned processes will be presented.204