Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 6, 2026

Isolation, Behavioral Identification, and Pathogenicity Assessment of Entomopathogenic Fungi from a Forest Wood Borer
Published on: September 29, 2023
A first genome assembly of the barley fungal pathogen Pyrenophora teres f. teres
Simon R Ellwood1, Zhaohui Liu, Rob A Syme
1Department of Environment and Agriculture, Curtin University, Kent Street, Bentley, Perth, Western Australia 6102, Australia. srellwood@gmail.com
Background:
Pyrenophora teres f. teres is a necrotrophic fungal pathogen and the cause of one of barley's most important diseases, net form of net blotch. Here we report the first genome assembly for this species based solely on short Solexa sequencing reads of isolate 0-1. The assembly was validated by comparison to BAC sequences, ESTs, orthologous genes and by PCR, and complemented by cytogenetic karyotyping and the first genome-wide genetic map for P. teres f. teres.
Results:
The total assembly was 41.95 Mbp and contains 11,799 gene models of 50 amino acids or more. Comparison against two sequenced BACs showed that complex regions with a high GC content assembled effectively. Electrophoretic karyotyping showed distinct chromosomal polymorphisms between isolates 0-1 and 15A, and cytological karyotyping confirmed the presence of at least nine chromosomes. The genetic map spans 2477.7 cM and is composed of 243 markers in 25 linkage groups, and incorporates simple sequence repeat markers developed from the assembly. Among predicted genes, non-ribosomal peptide synthetases and efflux pumps in particular appear to have undergone a P. teres f. teres-specific expansion of non-orthologous gene families.
Conclusions:
This study demonstrates that paired-end Solexa sequencing can successfully capture coding regions of a filamentous fungal genome. The assembly contains a plethora of predicted genes that have been implicated in a necrotrophic lifestyle and pathogenicity and presents a significant resource for examining the bases for P. teres f. teres pathogenicity.
Related Concept Videos
Fungal Phylum Ascomycota
Fungal Phylum Microsporidia
Fungal Phylum Basidiomycota
Fungal Group Zygomycota
Genome Annotation and Assembly
Oligosaccharide Assembly
Multiple sugar molecules that may or may...

