Fusarium graminearum: Difference between revisions
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==Pathology== | ==Pathology== | ||
F. graminearum is best known as a plant pathogen. It causes various diseases of cereal grains, such as gibberella ear rot in corn and fusarium head blight or scab in wheat and other grains. | |||
Toxic metabolites of the mold have been found to be toxigenic in humans. The major mycotoxins produced by F. graminearum are deoxynivalenol and zearalenone. Other toxins that may be produced by some strains include 3-acetyldeoxynivalenol, 15-acetyldeoxynivalenol, diacetyldeoxynivalenol, butenolide, diacetoxyscirpenol, fusarenon-X, monoacetyoxyscirpenol, neosolaniol, nivalenol, or T-2 toxin (Marasas and others, 1984). | |||
How does this organism cause disease? Human, animal, plant hosts? Virulence factors, as well as patient symptoms. | How does this organism cause disease? Human, animal, plant hosts? Virulence factors, as well as patient symptoms. | ||
Revision as of 02:30, 13 April 2009
A Microbial Biorealm page on the genus Fusarium graminearum
Classification
Higher order taxa
Eukaryota; Fungi; Ascomycota
Species
Fusarium graminearum
Description and significance
F. graminearum is commonly found on cereal grains, most commonly on wheat and barley. On wheat, the spores germinate on the kernel and grow down the stalk. Fuiting structures penetrate through the wheat's stomates. The kernels will appear visually "scabby".
Fusarium conidia are pink, banana-shaped objects with a foot cell or tiny knob at the tip of the banana for attachment.
F. graminearum, Fusarium Head Blight in particular, has major economic impacts. Diseased crop cost
Describe the appearance, habitat, etc. of the organism, and why you think it is important.
Genome structure
The genome of F. graminearum is made up of an assembly of plasmid, fosmid, and bacterial artificail chromosome, totaling 36.1 Mb and displaying high sequence quality and continuity. It is predicted that the genome contains a set of 11,640 genes and four chromosomes. Certain regions of the chromosomes have been found to have high levels of polymorphisms and high levels of recomination between strains of the species. An interesting feature of this observation is that genes that are specifically expressed during plant infection are all over-represented in high density single nucleotide polymorphic regions. The genome appears to have very few repetative sequences with fewer high-identity duplicates. It has been speculated that this is the result of repeat-induced point mutations.
Cell structure and metabolism
Interesting features of cell structure; how it gains energy; what important molecules it produces.
Ecology
Habitat; symbiosis; contributions to the environment.
Pathology
F. graminearum is best known as a plant pathogen. It causes various diseases of cereal grains, such as gibberella ear rot in corn and fusarium head blight or scab in wheat and other grains.
Toxic metabolites of the mold have been found to be toxigenic in humans. The major mycotoxins produced by F. graminearum are deoxynivalenol and zearalenone. Other toxins that may be produced by some strains include 3-acetyldeoxynivalenol, 15-acetyldeoxynivalenol, diacetyldeoxynivalenol, butenolide, diacetoxyscirpenol, fusarenon-X, monoacetyoxyscirpenol, neosolaniol, nivalenol, or T-2 toxin (Marasas and others, 1984).
How does this organism cause disease? Human, animal, plant hosts? Virulence factors, as well as patient symptoms.
Current Research
Enter summarries of the most rescent research here--at least three required
References
Cuomo, C., Guldener, U., Xu, J., Trail, F., Turgeon, B., Di Pietro, A., Walton, J., Ma, L., Baker, S., Rep, M., Adam, G., Antoniw, J., Baldwin, T., Calvo, S., Chang, Y., DeCaprio, D., Gale, L., Gnerre, S., Goswami, R., Hammond-Kosack, K., Harris, L., Hilburn, K., Kennell, J., Kroken, S., Magnuson, J., Mannhaupt, G., Munsterkotter, M., Nelson, D., O'Donnell, K., Ouellet, T., Qi, W., Quesneville, H., Roncero, M., Seong, K., Tetko, I., Urban, M., Waalwijk, C., Ward, T., Yao, J., Birren, B., Kistler, H. "The Fusarium graminearum Genome Reveals a Link Between Lacalized Polymorphism and Pathogen Specialization". Science. 2007. Vol. 317. p. 1400-1402.
Edited by student of Emily Lilly at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.
