Overview

The soil fungus Rhizoctonia solani is a member of a large species complex that consists primarily of pathogens of cultivated agricultural and forestry crops. In nature, the fungus exists as a heterokaryon and has mycelium that contains two genetically distinct nuclei each with their own nuclear genome (N+N). While heterokaryons exhibit properties of interest for studying the parasitic and saprobic behavior of the fungus, the two nuclear genomes present challenges for generating high quality genome sequences from these strains.

In this project, we are using an experimental approach that involves the sequencing of genomes of haploid, homokaryotic (1N) strains derived from single basidiospores of field isolates of R. solani anastomosis groups 3 (AG-3) from tobacco leaves (T2) and 4 (AG-4) from the roots of white spruce (Rs29.3). Strain T2 is host specific and strain Rs29.3 can infect multiple hosts is many plant families. These two strains will be sequenced using 100 bp paired end reads generated for each strain by a single lane from the Illumina GAIIx sequencing platform. The resulting genome sequence data will be used to complement the current genome sequencing project on R. solani AG-3 from potato to decipher the complex genomes of R. solani and to better understand genetic factors that govern host preference.

Funding

U.S. Department of Defense (DoD)

Dr. N. Bharathan and Dr. Seema Bharathan from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, Pennsylvania