Mycosphaerella is one of the largest genera of plant pathogenic fungi, having more than 1,000 named species, many of which cause economically important diseases in temperate and tropical crops. A few species of Mycosphaerella cause disease in humans and other vertebrates, so the genus is of interest both for human and plant health. Two species… [Read More]

Sporobolomyces roseus is a unicellular basidiomycete “red” yeast species, a member of the class Urediniomycetes, that occurs in many different habitats but is frequently associated with plants. The attraction of S. roseus for genome sequencing is twofold. First, it has the smallest known genome size among basidiomycetes, by a factor of two. At 10 Mbp,… [Read More]

The Bacillus cereus group is now attracting the greatest interest among researchers working on bacilli and other gram-positive bacteria. One of the fundamental and practical questions being asked is how the ecological adaptation of these bacteria results in pathogens for animals and insects (like B. anthracis or some B. thuringiensis lines). This has inspired intensive… [Read More]

Lactobacillus reuteri is a gram-positive bacterial species that commonly inhabits the gut of mice, poultry, and pigs as a member of the normal microbiota. These bacteria are autochthonous (indigenous) to the gut of these animals because they persist throughout the life of the host at characteristic population sizes in specific regions of the gut. Moreover,… [Read More]

Because the majority of microorganisms in nature have never been cultured, little is known about their genetic properties, biochemical functions, and metabolic characteristics. Although the sequence of the microbial community “genome” can now be determined with high-throughput sequencing technology, the complexity and magnitude of most microbial communities make meaningful data acquisition and interpretation difficult. Thus,… [Read More]