Comparative genomic analysis of Fusarium candidate virulence genes and plant detoxification genes

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Hans-Werner Mewes
• Subject Area: Bioinformatics and Theoretical Biology
• Term: from 2013 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 237132294

A successful collaboration on both, the fungal pathogen and wheat host side between BOKU researchers and bioinformatics experts from Munich has been established in previous funding periods. The project is led and coordinated by Hans-Werner MEWES, the task leaders for wheat and Fusarium are Klaus F. X. Mayer and Ulrich Güldener, respectively. The comparative re-annotation of F. graminearum and F. asiaticum was successfully implemented. Resequencing of F. graminearum, a new assembly and manual annotation efforts supported by RNA-seq data will result in an update of the primary F. graminearum PH-1 GenBank submission. The update will resolve annotation version conflicts and therefore improve genome analysis for the whole community. The updated assembly and annotation will also be distributed to available third party genome resources (FungiDB, Broad FGI, JGI, etc). Inconsistencies in the draft assembly of F. asiaticum strongly supported a resequencing and re-assembly approach. Annotation will be mapped and refined. The inventory on secondary metabolite gene clusters will be extended to all available Fusarium genomes to allow a genus wide evolutionary view on potential secondary metabolite distribution. One proposed application is the exploration of the genome of F. torulosum to identify the wortmannin biosynthesis pathway. The expertise is also essential for the de-novo sequencing and annotation of the north-american isolate WG-9 and the comparsion of six resequenced local isolates with emphasis on missing or additional genome parts including SM gene clusters. The genomes will also be explored for SNPs compared to PH-1. Gene expression and ChIP-seq data generated by partners (F3702, F3703) will be analyzed and integrated in genome browsers and the RNAseqExpressionBrowser.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Austria