Project description:Armillaria species are devastating forest pathogens that are among the largest terrestrial organisms on Earth. They explore hosts and achieve immense colony sizes by rhizomorphs, root-like multicellular structures of clonal dispersal. To resolve the genetic bases of their unique biology, we sequenced and analyzed genomes of 4 Armillaria species and performed RNA-Seq on 7 invasive and reproductive developmental stages. Comparison with 22 basidiomycete fungi revealed a significant genome expansion in Armillaria, affecting several pathogenicity-related genes, lignocellulose degrading enzymes and lineage-specific genes involved in rhizomorph development. Rhizomorphs express an evolutionarily young transcriptome and share their morphogenetic machinery with fruiting bodies, providing genetic and regulatory insights into complex multicellularity in fungi. Our results suggest that the evolution of the unique dispersal and pathogenicity mechanisms of Armillaria has drawn upon ancestral genetic toolkits for wood-decay, morphogenesis and complex multicellularity.
Project description:Investigation of whole genome gene expression level changes in Lactococcus lactis KCTC 3769T,L. raffinolactis DSM 20443T, L. plantarum DSM 20686T, L. fujiensis JSM 16395T, L. garvieae KCTC 3772T, L. piscium DSM 6634T and L. chungangensis CAU 28T . This proves that transcriptional profiling can facilitate in elucidating the genetic distance between closely related strains.
