Comparative genome sequence analysis underscores mycoparasitism as the ancestral life style of Trichoderma

Published in:

Genome Biology 12(4) ( 2011)

Author(s):

Kubicek, C. P., Herrera-Estrella, A., Seidl-Seiboth, V., Martinez, D. A., Druzhinina, I. S., Thon, M., Zeilinger, S., Casas-Flores, S., Horwitz, B. A., Mukherjee, P. K., Mukherjee, M., Kredics, L., Alcaraz, L. D., Aerts, A., Antal, Z., Atanasova, L., Cervantes-Badillo, M. G., Challacombe, J., Chertkov, O., McCluskey, K., Coulpier, F., Deshpande, N., von Dohren, H., Ebbole, D. J., Esquivel-Naranjo, E. U., Fekete, E., Flipphi, M., Glaser, F., Gomez-Rodriguez, E. Y., Gruber, S., Han, C., Henrissat, B., Hermosa, R., Hernandez-Onate, M., Karaffa, L., Kosti, I., Le Crom, S., Lindquist, E., Lucas, S., Lubeck, M., Lubeck, P. S., Margeot, A., Metz, B., Misra, M., Nevalainen, H., Omann, M., Packer, N., Perrone, G., Uresti-Rivera, E. E., Salamov, A., Schmoll, M., Seiboth, B., Shapiro, H., Sukno, S., Tamayo-Ramos, J. A., Tisch, D., Wiest, A., Wilkinson, H. H., Zhang, M., Coutinho, P. M., Kenerley, C. M., Monte, E., Baker, S. E., Grigoriev, I. V.

DOI:

Artn R40 Doi 10.1186/Gb-2011-12-4-R40

Abstract:

Background: Mycoparasitism, a lifestyle where one fungus is parasitic on another fungus, has special relevance when the prey is a plant pathogen, providing a strategy for biological control of pests for plant protection. Probably, the most studied biocontrol agents are species of the genus Hypocrea/Trichoderma.
Results: Here we report an analysis of the genome sequences of the two biocontrol species Trichoderma atroviride (teleomorph Hypocrea atroviridis) and Trichoderma virens (formerly Gliocladium virens, teleomorph Hypocrea virens), and a comparison with Trichoderma reesei (teleomorph Hypocrea jecorina). These three Trichoderma species display a remarkable conservation of gene order (78 to 96%), and a lack of active mobile elements probably due to repeat-induced point mutation. Several gene families are expanded in the two mycoparasitic species relative to T. reesei or other ascomycetes, and are overrepresented in non-syntenic genome regions. A phylogenetic analysis shows that T. reesei and T. virens are derived relative to T. atroviride. The mycoparasitism-specific genes thus arose in a common Trichoderma ancestor but were subsequently lost in T. reesei.
Conclusions: The data offer a better understanding of mycoparasitism, and thus enforce the development of improved biocontrol strains for efficient and environmentally friendly protection of plants.

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