Project description:Scaffolds of a previously published Lagenidium giganteum ARSEF 373 genome assembly found at GenBank were filtered to remove contaminating sequences. Genome annotation of the 437 scaffolds (total length, 56.2 MB; GC content, 58.8%) with confirmed L. giganteum sequences identified 13,069 potential protein-coding genes, encoding at least 737 predicted secreted proteins and >100 putative translocated effectors.
Project description:Infections of mammals by species in the phylum Oomycota taxonomically and molecularly similar to known Lagenidium giganteum strains have increased. During 2013-2014, we conducted a phylogenetic study of 21 mammalian Lagenidium isolates; we found that 11 cannot be differentiated from L. giganteum strains that the US Environmental Protection Agency approved for biological control of mosquitoes; these strains were later unregistered and are no longer available. L. giganteum strains pathogenic to mammals formed a strongly supported clade with the biological control isolates, and both types experimentally infected mosquito larvae. However, the strains from mammals grew well at 25°C and 37°C, whereas the biological control strains developed normally at 25°C but poorly at higher temperatures. The emergence of heat-tolerant strains of L. giganteum pathogenic to lower animals and humans is of environmental and public health concern.