Crop-threatening fungus
The fungus Leptosphaeria maculans,/i> causes stem canker in this crop, oilseed rape
Image: Wikimedia Commons, Brian Robert Marshall
Species: A pathogenic fungus, Leptosphaeria maculans Genome size: 45 million base pairs Interesting fact: This fungus causes stem canker in cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage, and bok choy, and is a major threat to oilseed rape, which is used to produce canola oil, animal feed, and biofuel. linkurl:T. Rouxel, et al., "Effector diversification within compartments of the Leptosphaeria maculans genome affected by Repeat-Induced Point mutations,"Nature Communications 2: 202, 2011.;http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v2/n2/full/ncomms1189.html Attack of the killer algae
Red tides, like this one from 2001, are similar to the brown tides caused by Aureococcus anophagefferens
Image: Wikimedia Commons, NOAA
Species: A golden alga, Aureococcus anophagefferens Genome size: 56 million base pairs Interesting fact: This species, which causes brown tides that threaten fisheries and coastal marine life, has a larger genome than other...
linkurl:C.J. Gobler, et al., "Niche of harmful alga Aureococcus anophagefferens revealed through ecogenomics," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108: 4352-4357, 2011.;http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2011/02/22/1016106108.abstract A tricki parasite
Trichinella spiralis in its namesake coiled shape
Image: Wikimedia commons, CDC
Trichinella spiralisTrichinella spiralis linkurl:M. Mitreva, et al., "The draft genome of the parasitic nematode Trichinella spiralis," Nature Genetics 43, 228-35, 2011;http://www.nature.com/ng/journal/v43/n3/full/ng.769.html An algal chloroplastBryopsis hypnoides linkurl:F. Lu, et al., "The Bryopsis hypnoides Plastid Genome: Multimeric Forms and Complete Nucleotide Sequence," PLoS ONE 6(2): e14663, 2011.;http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0014663 Two pathogenic leaf rust fungi
Puccinia graminis stem rust on wheat
Image: Wikimedia commons, USDA
Puccinia graminisMelampsora larici-populina linkurl:S. Duplessis et al., "Obligate biotrophy features unraveled by the genomic analysis of rust fungi," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1019315108, 2011.;http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2011/04/28/1019315108.abstract



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