The family of Ustilaginaceae belongs to the order of Basidiomycetes. Despite their plant pathogenicity causing, e.g., corn smut disease, they are also known as natural producers of value-added chemicals such as extracellular glycolipids, organic acids, and polyols. Here, we present 17 high-quality draft genome sequences (N50 > 1 Mb) combining third...
Plant pathogenic fungi must be able to degrade host cell walls in order to penetrate and invade plant tissues. Among the plant cell wall degrading enzymes (PCWDEs) produced, xylanases are of special interest since its degradation target, xylan, is one of the main structural polysaccharides in plant cell walls. In the biotrophic fungus Ustilago mayd...
Published in Fungal systematics and evolution
A smut fungus that hinders wiregrass restoration efforts in longleaf pine-grassland ecosystems was collected from Aristida stricta and A. beyrichiana (Poaceae) in three states in the southeastern USA. Morphological and phylogenetic characteristics of this fungus were examined. These data show that the specimens from both plant species were infected...
The biotrophic fungus Ustilago maydis secretes a plethora of uncharacterized effector proteins and causes smut disease in maize. Among the effector genes that are up-regulated during the biotrophic growth in maize, we identified vp1 (virulence promoting 1), which has an expression that was up-regulated and maintained at a high level throughout the ...
Published in The New phytologist
Ustilago maydis is a biotrophic fungus causing smut disease in corn. The infectious forms are dikaryotic hyphae. Here we analyze mutants lacking the nlt1 transcription factor and investigate why these mutants are unable to induce leaf tumors. The study involved reverse genetics, complementation, epistasis analysis, microscopy, gene expression analy...
After examination of specimens, mainly from the herbarium (MA) and the mycological collection (MA-Fungi) of the Royal Botanic Garden of Madrid, we report several novelties on smut fungi within Europe. Two species of smut fungi, Sporisorium egyptiacum and Tilletia viennotii, are reported for the first time from Europe. A finding of Sphacelotheca pol...
The biotrophic pathogenic smut fungus Sporisorium reilianum causes head smut in maize and sorghum and threatens the worldwide cultivation of infected plants. The fungus exists in two formae speciales, S. reilianum f. sp. zeae (SRZ) and S. reilianum f. sp. reilianum (SRS), that can infect maize and sorghum, respectively. Prior to plant infection, co...
Published in Journal of Fungi
The corn smut fungus Ustilago maydis serves as a model species for studying fungal dimorphism and its role in phytopathogenic development. The pathogen has two growth phases: a saprobic yeast phase and a pathogenic filamentous phase. Dimorphic transition of U. maydis involves complex processes of signal perception, mating, and cellular reprogrammin...
Published in Microorganisms
Multicellularity is defined as the developmental process by which unicellular organisms became pluricellular during the evolution of complex organisms on Earth. This process requires the convergence of genetic, ecological, and environmental factors. In fungi, mycelial and pseudomycelium growth, snowflake phenotype (where daughter cells remain attac...
Smut fungi are a large group of biotrophic plant pathogens that infect mostly monocot species, including economically relevant cereal crops. For years, Ustilago maydis has stood out as the model system to study the genetics and cell biology of smut fungi as well as the pathogenic development of biotrophic plant pathogens. The identification and fun...
