Comparative genomics reveals mobile pathogenicity chromosomes in Fusarium
- Li‐Jun Ma
- H. Charlotte van der Does
- Katherine A. Borkovich
- Jeffrey J. Coleman
- Marie‐Josée Daboussi
- Antonio Di Pietro
- Marie Dufresne
- Michael Freitag
- Manfred Grabherr
- Bernard Henrissat
- Petra M. Houterman
- Seogchan Kang
- Won‐Bo Shim
- Charles P. Woloshuk
- Xiaohui Xie
- Jin‐Rong Xu
- J. F. Antoniw
- SBScott Baker
- Burton H. Bluhm
- Andrew Breakspear
- Daren W. Brown
- Robert A. E. Butchko
- Sinéad B. Chapman
- Richard Coulson
- Pedro M. Coutinho
- Étienne Danchin
- Andrew C. Diener
- Liane Rosewich Gale
- Donald M. Gardiner
- Stephen A. Goff
- K. E. Hammond‐Kosack
- Karen Hilburn
- Aurélie Hua‐Van
- Wilfried Jonkers
- Kemal Kazan
- Chinnappa D. Kodira
- Michael Koehrsen
- Lokesh Kumar
- Yong‐Hwan Lee
- Liande Li
- John M. Manners
- Diego Miranda‐Saavedra
- Mala Mukherjee
- Gyungsoon Park
- Jongsun Park
- Sook-Young Park
- Robert H. Proctor
- Aviv Regev
- Carmen Ruiz‐Roldán
- Divya Sain
- Sharadha Sakthikumar
- Sean M. Sykes
- David C. Schwartz
- B. Gillian Turgeon
- Ilan Wapinski
- O. C. Yoder
- Sarah Young
- Qiandong Zeng
- Shiguo Zhou
- James E. Galagan
- Christina A. Cuomo
- Harold Kistler
- Martijn Rep
- SBScott Baker
- SBScott Baker
- SBScott Baker
- SBScott Baker
Nature · 2010 · Nature Portfolio
6 views · 0 downloads
Abstract
Fusarium species are among the most important phytopathogenic and toxigenic fungi. To understand the molecular underpinnings of pathogenicity in the genus Fusarium, we compared the genomes of three phenotypically diverse species: Fusarium graminearum, Fusarium verticillioides and Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici. Our analysis revealed lineage-specific (LS) genomic regions in F. oxysporum that include four entire chromosomes and account for more than one-quarter of the genome. LS regions are rich in transposons and genes with distinct evolutionary profiles but related to pathogenicity, indicative of horizontal acquisition. Experimentally, we demonstrate the transfer of two LS chromosomes between strains of F. oxysporum, converting 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 F. oxysporum. These findings put the evolution of fungal pathogenicity into a new perspective.