The potential for pathogenicity was present in the ancestor of the Ascomycete subphylum Pezizomycotina.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Previous studies in Ascomycetes have shown that the function of gene families of which the size is considerably larger in extant pathogens than in non-pathogens could be related to pathogenicity traits. However, by only comparing gene inventories in extant species, no insights can be gained into the evolutionary process that gave rise to these larger family sizes in pathogens. Moreover, most studies which consider gene families in extant species only tend to explain observed differences in gene family sizes by gains rather than by losses, hereby largely underestimating the impact of gene loss during genome evolution.

Results

In our study we used a selection of recently published genomes of Ascomycetes to analyze how gene family gains, duplications and losses have

SUBMITTER: Sanchez-Rodriguez A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3087541 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature