Meeting Abstract

S4-1.6  Saturday, Jan. 5  Tools and pipelines for comparative genomics with application to evolution in Fungi STAJICH, JE*; JONESON, S; ABRAMYAN, J; AHRENDT, S; RAMAMURTHY, R; SAIN, D; SHIU, SH; ROSENBLUM, EB; Univ of California, Riverside; Univ of Wisconsin – Waukesha; Univ of British Columbia; Univ of California, Riverside; Univ of California, Riverside; Univ of California, Riverside; Michigan State Univ; Univ of California, Berkeley jason.stajich@ucr.edu

Comparative analyses can extract information from the now readily available genome sequence data of organisms in order to study how gene and genome content change over time. Connecting these genomic changes to the evolution of traits or lifestyles can help determine the molecular basis for adaptations. Several existing tools exist for the comparison of fungal genome sequences including the new database platform FungiDB – http://fungidb.org. The application of this system to discover patterns in gene families, gene content, and inference of gene function from model systems to less tractable study systems will be demonstrated. These approaches are useful in both studies of recently emerged pathogens and evolution of traits across the fungal Kingdom. Comparisons to identify factors underlying pathogenesis in the amphibian killing chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) revealed potentially important gene family changes. These families included a large number of protease and metabolism related functions. Gene families of some potential cell wall proteins are highly expanded when comparing Bd to a closely related non-pathogenic species. In addition, comparisons of the early diverging chytrid fungi and with the Dikarya group of fungi revealed changes in gene content that suggest changes that underly the transition from single-celled aquatic chytrid fungi to the multicellular filamentous mushrooms and molds.