The filamentous fungus Aspergillus niger exhibits great diversity in its phenotype. It is found globally, both as marine and terrestrial strains, produces both organic acids and hydrolytic enzymes in high amounts, and some isolates exhibit pathogenicity. Although the genome of an industrial enzyme-producing A.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA strategy to control the devastating late blight disease is providing potato cultivars with genes that are effective in resistance to a broad spectrum of Phytophthora infestans isolates. Thus far, most late blight resistance (R) genes that were introgressed in potato were quickly defeated. In contrast, the Rpi-blb1 gene originating from Solanum bulbocastanum has performed as an exclusive broad-spectrum R gene for many years.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhytophthora infestans is the most destructive pathogen of potato and a model organism for the oomycetes, a distinct lineage of fungus-like eukaryotes that are related to organisms such as brown algae and diatoms. As the agent of the Irish potato famine in the mid-nineteenth century, P. infestans has had a tremendous effect on human history, resulting in famine and population displacement.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe identification and annotation of protein-coding genes is one of the primary goals of whole-genome sequencing projects, and the accuracy of predicting the primary protein products of gene expression is vital to the interpretation of the available data and the design of downstream functional applications. Nevertheless, the comprehensive annotation of eukaryotic genomes remains a considerable challenge. Many genomes submitted to public databases, including those of major model organisms, contain significant numbers of wrong and incomplete gene predictions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMol Plant Microbe Interact
November 2008
Resistance in potato against the oomycete Phytophthora infestans is conditioned by resistance (R) genes that are introgressed from wild Solanum spp. into cultivated potato. According to the gene-for-gene model, proteins encoded by R genes recognize race-specific effectors resulting in a hypersensitive response (HR).
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