High prevalence of the recently identified clonal lineage ST1299/CT3109 among vancomycin-resistant strains isolated from municipal wastewater.

Previously, we demonstrated that the majority of vancomycin-resistant (VREfm) strains from in-patients of the University Hospital Erlangen, Germany, belonged to only three clonal lineages, namely ST117/CT71 and two novel ST1299 lineages classified as CT3109 and CT1903. The goal of the current study was (i) to investigate whether VREfm is also detectable in wastewater of the city of Erlangen, (ii) to identify their molecular features, and (iii) to clarify whether VREfm could arise from the community of the city of Erlangen or can be (directly) connected to nosocomial infections in the hospital setting. From April to May 2023, a total of 244 VREfm strains from raw wastewater of the city of Erlangen were analyzed by core genome multilocus sequence typing (cgMLST).

Complete genome of the Medicago anthracnose fungus, , reveals a mini-chromosome-like region within a core chromosome.

() is a phytopathogenic fungus causing significant economic losses on forage legume crops ( and species) worldwide. To gain insights into the genetic basis of fungal virulence and host specificity, we sequenced the genome of an isolate from using long-read (PacBio) technology. The resulting genome assembly has a total length of 51.

The Many Questions about Mini Chromosomes in spp.

Many fungal pathogens carry accessory regions in their genome, which are not required for vegetative fitness. Often, although not always, these regions occur as relatively small chromosomes in different species. Such mini chromosomes appear to be a typical feature of many filamentous plant pathogens.

A Dispensable Chromosome Is Required for Virulence in the Hemibiotrophic Plant Pathogen .

The hemibiotrophic plant pathogen infects and in combination with , represents an important model system to investigate various ecologically important fungal pathogens and their infection strategies. After penetration of plant cells by appressoria, establishes large biotrophic primary hyphae in the first infected cell. Shortly thereafter, a switch to necrotrophic growth occurs leading to the invasion of neighboring cells by secondary hyphae.