Genomic factors limiting the diversity of Saccharomycotina plant pathogens
The Saccharomycotina fungi have evolved to inhabit a vast diversity of habitats over their 400-million-year evolution. There are, however, only a few known fungal pathogens of plants in this subphylum, primarily belonging to the genera Eremothecium and Geotrichum. We compared the genomes of 12 plant-pathogenic Saccharomycotina strains with 360 plant-associated strains to identify features unique to the phytopathogens. Characterization of the oxylipin synthesis genes, a compound believed to be involved in Eremothecium pathogenicity, did not reveal any differences in gene presence within or between the plant-pathogenic and plant-associated strains. A reverse-ecological approach, however, revealed that plant pathogens lack several metabolic enzymes known to assist other phytopathogens in overcoming plant defenses. This includes L-rhamnose metabolism, formamidase, and nitrilase genes. This result suggests that the Saccharomycotina plant pathogens are limited to infecting ripening fruits as they are without the necessary enzymes to degrade common phytohormones and secondary metabolites produced by plants.
Authors
- Marizeth Groenewald (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0835-5925)
- Dana A. Opulente (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3224-7510)
- John F. Wolters (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5477-4250)
- Marie‐Claire Harrison (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3013-9906)
- Antonis Rokas (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7248-6551)
- Chris Todd Hittinger (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5088-7461)
- Caroline West (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8578-5174)
- Abigail L. LaBella (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0068-6703)
- Xing‐Xing Shen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5765-1419)
- Xiaofan Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2879-6317)
- Sun Young Lee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9121-0182)
Institutions
- South China Agricultural University (CN)
- University of North Carolina at Charlotte (US)
- University of Wisconsin–Madison (US)
- Vanderbilt University (US)
- Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (US)
- Key Laboratory of Guangdong Province (CN)
- Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute (NL)
- Energy Center of Wisconsin (US)
- Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (ES)
- Zhejiang University (CN)
- Villanova University (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- G3 Genes Genomes Genetics
- Published
- 2025-08-12
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1093/g3journal/jkaf184
- Primary Topic
- Fermentation and Sensory Analysis
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00