K Mitchell Thomas, Thon Michael R, Jeong Jun-Seop, Brown Doug, Deng Jixin, Dean Ralph A
North Carolina State University, Fungal Genomics Laboratory, Department of Plant Pathology, Box 7251, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA.
New Phytol. 2003 Jul;159(1):53-61. doi: 10.1046/j.1469-8137.2003.00787.x.
Fungi have an astounding and diverse impact on this planet. While they are agents of human diseases and the cause of allergic reactions, factories for the conversion of carbon in environmental and industrially adapted systems, and potential biological weapons, their importance as plant pathogens is unparalleled. In plants alone, fungi cause tens of thousands of different diseases and are responsible for massive losses of food, fiber and forestry at an estimated annual cost of hundreds of billions of dollars. These losses are not only realized in the incomes of individual farmers and state economies, but contribute significantly to world hunger problems and issues relating to safeguarding a global food supply. Our collective understanding of how fungi, particularly plant pathogens, grow, reproduce, identify a host and cause disease is still at a formative stage. There is an equal lack of detailed knowledge about how a plant recognizes that it is being attacked and then mounts an adequate defense response. The advent of genomic technologies has given researchers an unprecedented opportunity to address these mysteries in a powerful and more holistic manner. Where the genetic revolution of only a few years ago allowed for the characterization of single genes, today's genomic technologies are facilitating the evaluation of the entire complement of genes in an organism and the discovery of the suites of genes that act during any one time or particular condition. This review will describe the recent development of tools for whole or partial genome analysis and multigenome comparisons. Th discussion focuses on the rice blast pathosystem as a case study.
真菌对这个星球有着惊人而多样的影响。它们既是人类疾病的病原体和过敏反应的诱因，又是环境和工业适应系统中碳转化的工厂以及潜在的生物武器，然而它们作为植物病原体的重要性却是无与伦比的。仅在植物领域，真菌就会引发数以万计的不同疾病，导致粮食、纤维和林业遭受巨大损失，估计每年造成数千亿美元的损失。这些损失不仅体现在个体农民的收入和国家经济方面，还对世界饥饿问题以及保障全球粮食供应的相关问题产生重大影响。我们对真菌，尤其是植物病原体如何生长、繁殖、识别宿主并引发疾病的总体认识仍处于形成阶段。对于植物如何识别自身受到攻击并随后产生适当防御反应，我们同样缺乏详细的了解。基因组技术的出现为研究人员提供了前所未有的机会，以一种强大且更全面的方式解开这些谜团。就在几年前，基因革命还只能对单个基因进行表征，而如今的基因组技术则有助于评估生物体中的全部基因，并发现任何时刻或特定条件下起作用的基因组合。本综述将描述全基因组或部分基因组分析以及多基因组比较工具的最新进展。讨论将以稻瘟病菌致病系统作为案例研究重点展开。
