Comparative genomics of related fungal plant pathogens Cladosporium fulvum and Dothistroma septosporum
The related Dothideomycete fungal plant pathogens Cladosporium fulvum and Dothistroma septosporum both grow in intercellular spaces in close vicinity of mesophyll cells, but have different lifestyles and infect different host plants. C. fulvum is a biotroph infecting tomato, while D. septosporum is a necrotroph infecting pine. We sequenced their genomes in order to find cues for their differences in pathogenic behaviour and host-specificity. Students with an interest in biology and bioinformatics of fungi can study, by bioinformatics approaches, the role of several biological components and processes in fungal pathogenicity including (i) secreted effectors and enzymes/ enzyme inhibitors, (ii) transposons and their activities, (iii) transcription factors (iv) secondary metabolite gene clusters, and (v) pseudogenization and repeat-induced point mutations.