EU-funded Scientists Sequence Fungal Disease Genome

Researchers in England, France, and Germany led by the Imperial College London, UK have recently sequenced the genome of Blumeria, the causal pathogen of powdery mildew in barley. The disease is a major problem in many cereals, fruits and vegetables. Affected plants become covered with powdery white spots in the leaves and stems affecting the yield immensely. The team found many large number of transposons in Blumeria whose regulation for expression has disappeared.

Dr. Pietro D. Spanu, lead author of the study, believed that this phenomenon "might be an adaptive advantage for them to have these genomic parasites, as it allows the pathogen to respond more rapidly to the plant's evolution and defeat the immune system." 'With this knowledge of the genome we can now rapidly identify which genes have mutated, and then can select plant varieties that are more resistant," Dr. Spanu further explained.

The original research article can be seen at http://cordis.europa.eu/fetch?CALLER=FP6_NEWS&ACTION=D&DOC=13&CAT=NEWS&QUERY=012ee8297441:9661:17e912f4&RCN=32891.