Pythium ultimum Assembly and Gene Annotation

About the Pythium ultimum genome

Pythium ultimum is a ubiquitous oomycete plant pathogen responsible for a variety of diseases on a broad range of crop and ornamental species. Analysis of the Pythium ultimum genome sequence suggests that not all oomycete plant pathogens contain a similar 'toolkit' for survival and pathogenesis. Pythium ultimum has a distinct effector repertoire compared to Phytophthora spp. The repertoire of metabolic genes within the Pythium ultimum genome reflects its pathogenic lifestyle. It is an opportunistic pathogen of young seedlings and plant roots with little or no cuticle or heavily suberized tissue, consistent with lack of cutinase encoding genes. It is a poor competitor against secondary invaders of damaged plant tissues and soil organisms with better saprobic ability.

Assembly

The assembly for the genome was provided by Pythium Genome Databaseand is also available from the EMBL/Genbank/DDBJ databases under the accession GCA_000143045.1

Annotation

Annotation of Pythium ultimum is provided by the Pythium Genome Database. Access to the Pythium ultimum genome has revealed not only core pathogenic mechanisms within the oomycetes but also lineage-specific genes associated with the alternative virulence and lifestyles found within the pythiaceous lineages compared to the Peronosporaceae.

References

1. Genome sequence of the necrotrophic plant pathogen Pythium ultimum reveals original pathogenicity mechanisms and effector repertoire.
   Lvesque CA, Brouwer H, Cano L, Hamilton JP, Holt C, Huitema E, Raffaele S, Robideau GP, Thines M, Win J et al. 2010. Genome Biol.. 11:R73.
2. Pythium Genome Database.
   
3. Genome sequence of the necrotrophic plant pathogen Pythium ultimum reveals original pathogenicity mechanisms and effector repertoire.
   Lvesque CA, Brouwer H, Cano L, Hamilton JP, Holt C, Huitema E, Raffaele S, Robideau GP, Thines M, Win J et al. 2010. Genome Biol.. 11:R73.
4. Comparative genomics reveals insight into virulence strategies of plant pathogenic oomycetes.
   Adhikari BN, Hamilton JP, Zerillo MM, Tisserat N, Lvesque CA, Buell CR. 2013. PLoS ONE. 8:e75072.
5. Carbohydrate-active enzymes in pythium and their role in plant cell wall and storage polysaccharide degradation.
   Zerillo MM, Adhikari BN, Hamilton JP, Buell CR, Lvesque CA, Tisserat N. 2013. PLoS ONE. 8:e72572.

Picture credit: Dr. Kanak Bala in the laboratory of André Lévesque

Other Data

Transcriptomics data used to investigate the pathogenicity mechanism (SRP002690) was added as BAM tracks

More information

General information about this species can be found in Wikipedia.