Microbial Genome Sequencing: Genome Sequence of Phytophthora Sojae

弗吉尼亚理工大学的布雷特·泰勒博士和布鲁诺·索布拉尔博士与美国能源部联合基因组研究所的杰夫·布雷博士合作，获得了创建大豆疫霉病原菌整个DNA序列的粗略草稿的赠款。来自疫霉属的植物病原体会对多种作物、植物以及森林和本地生态系统造成破坏性疾病。马铃薯病原体P.infestans是爱尔兰马铃薯饥荒的罪魁祸首，至今仍是生物安全关注的破坏性病原体。表面上看，疫霉病原体类似真菌，但实际上它们属于一个名为Stramenopiles的类群，该类群与海藻和硅藻等藻类关系最密切。因此，常规的真菌控制措施往往对这些病原菌无效。之所以将大豆疫霉选为该项目的研究对象，是因为它的基因操作相对容易。这个项目将与美国能源部资助的一个项目紧密结合在一起，该项目旨在确定橡树猝死病原体P.ramorum的序列草案。该项目的更广泛影响将包括直接培训博士后研究员和本科生，以及在多学科、以团队为导向的环境中访问少数族裔机构的研究人员，该环境强调发展实验生物学和计算生物学之间协同作用所需的沟通技能。社区注释平台将为世界各地的研究人员提供一个多学科的培训环境。这项研究将通过开发和公开提供微生物基因组研究基础设施，这是来自Stramenopile王国的病原体的第一个深入基因组资源。这一资源将为对一组对全球生态系统、粮食安全和农业生产有重大影响的病原体采取新的控制措施提供基础。这是一个微生物基因组测序奖，由美国国家科学基金会和农业部合作资助。

Drs. Brett Tyler and Bruno Sobral of Virginia Tech., in collaboration with Dr Jeff Boore of the DOE Joint Genome Institute have been awarded a grant to create a rough draft of the entire DNA sequence of the soybean pathogen Phytophthora sojae. Plant pathogens from the genus Phytophthora cause destructive diseases of an enormous variety of crop plant species as well as forests and native ecosystems. The potato pathogen P. infestans was responsible for the Irish potato famine, and is still a destructive pathogen of concern for biosecurity. Superficially, Phytophthora pathogens resemble fungi, but they in fact belong to a group called Stramenopiles that are most closely related to algae such as kelp and diatoms. Hence conventional fungus control measures often fail against these pathogens. P. sojae has been chosen for the project because it is relatively easy to genetically manipulate. This project will be tightly integrated with a project funded by the DOE to determine a draft sequence of the oak sudden death pathogen P. ramorum.The broader impact of the project will include direct training of postdoctoral fellows and undergraduates, and visiting researchers from minority institutions in a multidisciplinary, team-oriented environment that emphasizes development of the communications skills required for synergistic interactions between experimental and computational biology. The community annotation platform will provide a multi-disciplinary training environment for researchers world-wide. This research will advance the microbial genome research infrastructure by developing and making publicly available, the first in-depth genomic resource for a pathogen from the Stramenopile kingdom. This resource will provide a basis for new control measures against a group of pathogens which have major impacts on global ecosystems, food security and agricultural production. This is a Microbial Genome Sequencing Award funded through a collaborative program between the National Science Foundation and the Department of Agriculture.