Homolog identification of heat shock proteins in eight fungi belonging to Pezizomycetes and copy number comparisons

Heat shock proteins are ubiquitous, highly conserved and play a role in the fungal adaptation to the environment. In the present study of comparative genomics, we used gene models, identified as the stress-response related gene families in the genome of Tuber melanosporum, to find the homologs in the genome of seven other Pezizomycetes having different lifestyles and in the new genome assembly of T. melanosporum. The produced list of homologs was also used to search for a correlation: 1) between heat shock protein copy number and lifestyle (saprotrophic and symbiotic) and 2) heat shock protein copy number and genome size. No significant correlation was found between copies and size, as well as between copies and lifestyle within the limited set of considered fungal species. The utility of a list of genes homologs in Pezizomycetes coding for heat shock proteins or other chaperones is discussed.