RA5 PAPER: Austropuccinia psidii genome

Austropuccinia psidii, causing myrtle rust, has a gigabase-sized genome shaped by transposable elements.

March 2020

Tobias PA, Schwessinger B, Deng CH, Wu C, Dong C, Sperschneider J, Jones A, Lou Z, Zhang P, Sandhu K, Smith GR, Tibbits J, Chagné D, Park RF. 2020. Austropuccinia psidii, causing myrtle rust, has a gigabase-sized genome shaped by transposable elements. G3 Genes|Genomes|Genetics 11(3): 16.

ABSTRACT

Austropuccinia psidii, originating in South America, is a globally invasive fungal plant pathogen that causes rust disease on Myrtaceae. Several biotypes are recognized, with the most widely distributed pandemic biotype spreading throughout the Asia-Pacific and Oceania regions over the last decade. A. psidii has a broad host range with more than 480 myrtaceous species. Since first detected in Australia in 2010, the pathogen has caused the near extinction of at least three species and negatively affected commercial production of several Myrtaceae. To enable molecular and evolutionary studies into A. psidii pathogenicity, we assembled a highly contiguous genome for the pandemic biotype.

KEYWORDS

myrtle rust, Pucciniomycotina, fungal genome evolution, Myrtaceae, transposable elements