Letter abstract
Nature Genetics 39, 561 - 565 (2007)
Published online: 11 March 2007 | doi:10.1038/ng2002
Genome-wide functional analysis of pathogenicity genes in the rice blast fungus
Junhyun Jeon1, Sook-Young Park1,5, Myoung-Hwan Chi1, Jaehyuk Choi1, Jongsun Park1, Hee-Sool Rho1, Soonok Kim1, Jaeduk Goh1, Sungyong Yoo1, Jinhee Choi1, Ju-Young Park1, Mihwa Yi1, Seonyoung Yang1, Min-Jung Kwon1, Seong-Sook Han2, Byeong Ryun Kim2, Chang Hyun Khang3, Bongsoo Park1,5, Se-Eun Lim1, Kyongyong Jung1, Sunghyung Kong1, Maruthachalam Karunakaran1, Hong-Sik Oh1, Hyojeong Kim1, Seryun Kim1, Jaejin Park1, Soyoung Kang1, Woo-Bong Choi4, Seogchan Kang3 & Yong-Hwan Lee1
Rapid translation of genome sequences into meaningful biological information hinges on the integration of multiple experimental and informatics methods into a cohesive platform. Despite the explosion in the number of genome sequences available1, such a platform does not exist for filamentous fungi. Here we present the development and application of a functional genomics and informatics platform for a model plant pathogenic fungus, Magnaporthe oryzae2. In total, we produced 21,070 mutants through large-scale insertional mutagenesis using Agrobacterium tumefaciens–mediated transformation3. We used a high-throughput phenotype screening pipeline to detect disruption of seven phenotypes encompassing the fungal life cycle and identified the mutated gene and the nature of mutation for each mutant. Comparative analysis of phenotypes and genotypes of the mutants uncovered 202 new pathogenicity loci. Our findings demonstrate the effectiveness of our platform and provide new insights on the molecular basis of fungal pathogenesis. Our approach promises comprehensive functional genomics in filamentous fungi and beyond.
- Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Center for Fungal Genetic Resources, and Center for Agricultural Biomaterials, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-921, Korea.
- National Institute of Crop Science, Rural Development Administration, Suwon 441-857, Korea.
- Department of Plant Pathology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.
- Department of Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Dongeui University, Busan 614-714, Korea.
- Current address: Department of Plant Pathology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.
Correspondence to: Yong-Hwan Lee1 e-mail: yonglee@snu.ac.kr
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