PacBio Sequencing is characterized by very long sequence reads (averaging > 10,000 bases), lack of GC-bias, and high consensus accuracy. These features have allowed the method to provide a new…
Plant-beneficial Pseudomonas spp. competitively colonize the rhizosphere and display plant-growth promotion and/or disease-suppression activities. Some strains within the P. fluorescens species complex produce phenazine derivatives, such as phenazine-1-carboxylic acid. These antimicrobial compounds are broadly inhibitory to numerous soil-dwelling plant pathogens and play a role in the ecological competence of phenazine-producing Pseudomonas spp. We assembled a collection encompassing 63 strains representative of the worldwide diversity of plant-beneficial phenazine-producing Pseudomonas spp. In this study, we report the sequencing of 58 complete genomes using PacBio RS II sequencing technology. Distributed among four subgroups within the P. fluorescens species complex, the diversity of our collection is reflected by the large pangenome which accounts for 25 413 protein-coding genes. We identified genes and clusters encoding for numerous phytobeneficial traits, including antibiotics, siderophores and cyclic lipopeptides biosynthesis, some of which were previously unknown in these microorganisms. Finally, we gained insight into the evolutionary history of the phenazine biosynthetic operon. Given its diverse genomic context, it is likely that this operon was relocated several times during Pseudomonas evolution. Our findings acknowledge the tremendous diversity of plant-beneficial phenazine-producing Pseudomonas spp., paving the way for comparative analyses to identify new genetic determinants involved in biocontrol, plant-growth promotion and rhizosphere competence. © 2018 Society for Applied Microbiology and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Single-molecule full-length complementary DNA (cDNA) sequencing can aid genome annotation by revealing transcript structure and alternative splice forms, yet current annotation pipelines do not incorporate such information. Here we present long-read annotation (LoReAn) software, an automated annotation pipeline utilizing short- and long-read cDNA sequencing, protein evidence, and ab initio prediction to generate accurate genome annotations. Based on annotations of two fungal genomes (Verticillium dahliae and Plicaturopsis crispa) and two plant genomes (Arabidopsis [Arabidopsis thaliana] and Oryza sativa), we show that LoReAn outperforms popular annotation pipelines by integrating single-molecule cDNA-sequencing data generated from either the Pacific Biosciences or MinION sequencing platforms, correctly predicting gene structure, and capturing genes missed by other annotation pipelines. © 2019 American Society of Plant Biologists. All Rights Reserved.
Plant pathogens continuously evolve to evade host immune responses. During host colonization, many fungal pathogens secrete effectors to perturb such responses, but these in turn may become recognized by host immune receptors. To facilitate the evolution of effector repertoires, such as the elimination of recognized effectors, effector genes often reside in genomic regions that display increased plasticity, a phenomenon that is captured in the two-speed genome hypothesis. The genome of the vascular wilt fungus Verticillium dahliae displays regions with extensive presence/absence polymorphisms, so-called lineage-specific regions, that are enriched in in planta-induced putative effector genes. As expected, comparative genomics reveals differential degrees of sequence divergence between lineage-specific regions and the core genome. Unanticipated, lineage-specific regions display markedly higher sequence conservation in coding as well as noncoding regions than the core genome. We provide evidence that disqualifies horizontal transfer to explain the observed sequence conservation and conclude that sequence divergence occurs at a slower pace in lineage-specific regions of the V. dahliae genome. We hypothesize that differences in chromatin organisation may explain lower nucleotide substitution rates in the plastic, lineage-specific regions of V. dahliae. © 2019 The Authors. Molecular Ecology Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Allotetraploid cotton species (Gossypium hirsutum and Gossypium barbadense) have long been cultivated worldwide for natural renewable textile fibers. The draft genome sequences of both species are available but they are highly fragmented and incomplete1-4. Here we report reference-grade genome assemblies and annotations for G. hirsutum accession Texas Marker-1 (TM-1) and G. barbadense accession 3-79 by integrating single-molecule real-time sequencing, BioNano optical mapping and high-throughput chromosome conformation capture techniques. Compared with previous assembled draft genomes1,3, these genome sequences show considerable improvements in contiguity and completeness for regions with high content of repeats such as centromeres. Comparative genomics analyses identify extensive structural variations that probably occurred after polyploidization, highlighted by large paracentric/pericentric inversions in 14 chromosomes. We constructed an introgression line population to introduce favorable chromosome segments from G. barbadense to G. hirsutum, allowing us to identify 13 quantitative trait loci associated with superior fiber quality. These resources will accelerate evolutionary and functional genomic studies in cotton and inform future breeding programs for fiber improvement.
Phytopathogen genomes are under constant pressure to change, as pathogens are locked in an evolutionary arms race with their hosts, where pathogens evolve effector genes to manipulate their hosts, whereas the hosts evolve immune components to recognize the products of these genes. Colletotrichum higginsianum (Ch), a fungal pathogen with no known sexual morph, infects Brassicaceae plants including Arabidopsis thaliana. Previous studies revealed that Ch differs in its virulence toward various Arabidopsis thaliana ecotypes, indicating the existence of coevolutionary selective pressures. However, between-strain genomic variations in Ch have not been studied. Here, we sequenced and assembled the genome of a Ch strain, resulting in a highly contiguous genome assembly, which was compared with the chromosome-level genome assembly of another strain to identify genomic variations between strains. We found that the two closely related strains vary in terms of large-scale rearrangements, the existence of strain-specific regions, and effector candidate gene sets and that these variations are frequently associated with transposable elements (TEs). Ch has a compartmentalized genome consisting of gene-sparse, TE-dense regions with more effector candidate genes and gene-dense, TE-sparse regions harboring conserved genes. Additionally, analysis of the conservation patterns and syntenic regions of effector candidate genes indicated that the two strains vary in their effector candidate gene sets because of de novo evolution, horizontal gene transfer, or gene loss after divergence. Our results reveal mechanisms for generating genomic diversity in this asexual pathogen, which are important for understanding its adaption to hosts. © The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution.
Verticillium wilt is a devastating disease in eggplants. In order to understand the molecular mechanism of disease resistance in eggplants, transcriptomes of Verticillium wilt infected eggplants were detected. A total of 480, 518, 887 and 1 046 Verticillium wilt related differentially expressed genes were identified at 6 (V6), 12 (V12), 24 (V24) and 48?h (V48), respectively. COG function classification revealed that most of DEGs functioned in “Amino acid transport and metabolism”, “Cytoskeleton” and “Cell motility”. In addition, compared the control plants (V0) to infected eggplants (V6-V48), a total of 111 common DEGs were identified. Except for “General function prediction only”, most of the DEGs enriched in “Signal transduction”. DEGs associated to different hormone signals, including GID1B, ROPGAP1, OPT3 and CDPK, were identified throughout the whole infection process. Cross-talk among defense signal pathways plays major roles in the Verticillium wilt disease resistance in eggplants.
Gossypium australe F. Mueller (2n?=?2x?=?26, G2 genome) possesses valuable characteristics. For example, the delayed gland morphogenesis trait causes cottonseed protein and oil to be edible while retaining resistance to biotic stress. However, the lack of gene sequences and their alternative splicing (AS) in G. australe remain unclear, hindering to explore species-specific biological morphogenesis.Here, we report the first sequencing of the full-length transcriptome of the Australian wild cotton species, G. australe, using Pacific Biosciences single-molecule long-read isoform sequencing (Iso-Seq) from the pooled cDNA of ten tissues to identify transcript loci and splice isoforms. We reconstructed the G. australe full-length transcriptome and identified 25,246 genes, 86 pre-miRNAs and 1468 lncRNAs. Most genes (12,832, 50.83%) exhibited two or more isoforms, suggesting a high degree of transcriptome complexity in G. australe. A total of 31,448 AS events in five major types were found among the 9944 gene loci. Among these five major types, intron retention was the most frequent, accounting for 68.85% of AS events. 29,718 polyadenylation sites were detected from 14,536 genes, 7900 of which have alternative polyadenylation sites (APA). In addition, based on our AS events annotations, RNA-Seq short reads from germinating seeds showed that differential expression of these events occurred during seed germination. Ten AS events that were randomly selected were further confirmed by RT-PCR amplification in leaf and germinating seeds.The reconstructed gene sequences and their AS in G. australe would provide information for exploring beneficial characteristics in G. australe.
Pear ring rot disease, mainly caused by Botryosphaeria dothidea, is widespread in most pear and apple-growing regions. Mycoviruses are used for biocontrol, especially in fruit tree disease. BdCV1 (Botryosphaeria dothidea chrysovirus 1) and BdPV1 (Botryosphaeria dothidea partitivirus 1) influence the biological characteristics of B. dothidea strains. BdCV1 is a potential candidate for the control of fungal disease. Therefore, it is vital to explore interactions between B. dothidea and mycovirus to clarify the pathogenic mechanisms of B. dothidea and hypovirulence of B. dothidea in pear. A high-quality full-length genome sequence of the B. dothidea LW-Hubei isolate was obtained using Single Molecule Real-Time sequencing. It has high repeat sequence with 9.3% and DNA methylation existence in the genome. The 46.34?Mb genomes contained 14,091 predicted genes, which of 13,135 were annotated. B. dothidea was predicted to express 3833 secreted proteins. In bioinformatics analysis, 351 CAZy members, 552 transporters, 128 kinases, and 1096 proteins associated with plant-host interaction (PHI) were identified. RNA-silencing components including two endoribonuclease Dicer, four argonaute (Ago) and three RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) molecules were identified and expressed in response to mycovirus infection. Horizontal transfer of the LW-C and LW-P strains indicated that BdCV1 induced host gene silencing in LW-C to suppress BdPV1 transmission. To investigate the role of RNA-silencing in B. dothidea defense, we constructed four small RNA libraries and sequenced B. dothidea micro-like RNAs (Bd-milRNAs) produced in response to BdCV1 and BdPV1 infection. Among these, 167 conserved and 68 candidate novel Bd-milRNAs were identified, of which 161 conserved and 20 novel Bd-milRNA were differentially expressed. WEGO analysis revealed involvement of the differentially expressed Bd-milRNA-targeted genes in metabolic process, catalytic activity, cell process and response to stress or stimulus. BdCV1 had a greater effect on the phenotype, virulence, conidiomata, vertical and horizontal transmission ability, and mycelia cellular structure biological characteristics of B. dothidea strains than BdPV1 and virus-free strains. The results obtained in this study indicate that mycovirus regulates biological processes in B. dothidea through the combined interaction of antiviral defense mediated by RNA-silencing and milRNA-mediated regulation of target gene mRNA expression.
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