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Pustula tragopogonis (Pers.) Thines (2), formerly known as Albugo tragopogonis (Pers.) Gray, causes white rust on some members of the Asteraceae. It has been reported to attack cultivated sunflower in several parts of the world, for example, North America (1) and South Africa (3), but has not been previously reported on sunflower in Germany. During June 2003, the first diseased plants were observed in a sunflower field near Stuttgart, where sunflowers were grown as ornamentals. During 2004, P. tragopogonis was found in several ornamental sunflower fields in southern Germany. In some cases, P. tragopogonis co-occurred with Plasmopara halstedii (Farlow) Berl. & De Toni on the same plants. After a cold winter, the first diseased plants for 2005 were observed during June in the area around Stuttgart. The percentage of affected plants in the sunflower fields varied considerably, ranging from 20 to 80%. Only small lesions with oospores could be found on petioles and stems of infected plants. The typical spots with white blisters were observed mostly on leaves in the upper half of the plants, but also occurred on the bracteoles of the flower heads. Spots were chlorotic on the upper side of the leaf and exhibited whitish pustules on the lower side of the leaf. Pustules were concentrated around the margins of the leaves, but also were observed scattered on the whole lower surface. Light and scanning electron microscopy, as well as polymerase chain reaction and internal transcribed spacer sequencing were applied to identify the attacking pathogen as P. tragopogonis. Infection tests under laboratory conditions also proved the pathogenicity of the attacking agent to oilseed sunflower. Since the pathogen has survived the harsh winter months of early 2005 and appeared in three consecutive seasons, the disease seems now to be established in southern Germany and is expected to spread into other regions. References: (1) T. J. Gulya et al. Plant Dis. 86:559, 2002. (2) M. Thines and O. Spring. Mycotaxon 92:443, 2005. (3) P. S. van Wyk et al. Helia 22:83, 1995.

WOS: 000209907000037, PubMed ID: 22679594, The Amsterdam Declaration on Fungal Nomenclature was agreed at an international symposium convened in Amsterdam on 19-20 April 2011 under the auspices of the International Commission on the Taxonomy of Fungi (ICTF). The purpose of the symposium was to address the issue of whether or how the current system of naming pleomorphic fungi should be maintained or changed now that molecular data are routinely available. The issue is urgent as mycologists currently follow different practices, and no consensus was achieved by a Special Committee appointed in 2005 by the International Botanical Congress to advise on the problem. The Declaration recognizes the need for an orderly transitition to a single-name nomenclatural system for all fungi, and to provide mechanisms to protect names that otherwise then become endangered. That is, meaning that priority should be given to the first described name, except where that is a younger name in general use when the first author to select a name of a pleomorphic monophyletic genus is to be followed, and suggests controversial cases are referred to a body, such as the ICTF, which will report to the Committee for Fungi. If appropriate, the ICTF could be mandated to promote the implementation of the Declaration. In addition, but not forming part of the Declaration, are reports of discussions held during the symposium on the governance of the nomenclature of fungi, and the naming of fungi known only from an environmental nucleic acid sequence in particular. Possible amendments to the Draft BioCode (2011) to allow for the needs of mycologists are suggested for further consideration, and a possible example of how a fungus only known from the environment might be described is presented., CBS-KNAW Fungal Biodiversity Centre, The mycological community is indebted to Keith A Seifert and Robert A Samson for conceiving and organizing the One Fungus = One Name symposium. The CBS-KNAW Fungal Biodiversity Centre kindly provided logistical and financial support towards the organization of the symposium.

MrBayes is a program that uses a Bayesian framework for inferring phylogenetic relationships. As MrBayes is a command-line-driven program, users acquainted to programs with graphical user interfaces will not find it easy to operate, especially as it requires a complex input format for the data to be analysed. We thus developed siMBa (simple MrBayes), a simple graphical user interface for MrBayes. This tool gives the user interactive control over most of the parameters and also facilitates the input of a multiple sequence alignment, as any widely used format can be used. siMBa is coded in Perl using the Tk module. Executables are provided for Windows, Linux, and Macintosh. The Perl codes, along with executables for different operating system, are freely available to download from [ http://www.thines-lab.senckenberg.de/simba ].

SummaryThe constitution and regulation of effector repertoires determines and shapes the outcome of the interaction with the host. Ustilago maydis and Sporisorium reilianum are two closely related smut fungi, which both infect maize, but cause distinct disease symptoms. Understanding how effector orthologs are regulated in these two pathogens can therefore provide insights to pathogen evolution and host adaption.We tracked the infection progress of U. maydis and S. reilianum in maize leaves, characterized two distinct infection stages for cross species RNA-sequencing analysis and identified 207 out of 335 one-to-one effector orthologs being differentially regulated during host colonization, while transcriptional plasticity of the effector orthologs correlated with the distinct disease development strategies.By using CRISPR-Cas9 mediated gene conversion, we identified two differentially expressed effector orthologs with conserved function between two pathogens. Thus, differential expression of functionally conserved genes contributes to species specific adaptation and symptom development. Interestingly, another differentially expressed orthogroup (UMAG_05318/Sr1007) showed diverged protein function during speciation, providing a possible case for neofunctionalization.Collectively, we showed the diversification of effector genes in related pathogens can be caused both by plasticity on the transcriptional level, as well as through functional diversification of the encoded effector proteins.

Background Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous is a basal agaricomycete with uncertain taxonomic placement, known for its unique ability to produce astaxanthin, a carotenoid with antioxidant properties. It was the aim of this study to elucidate the organization of its CoA-derived pathways and to use the genomic information of X. dendrorhous for a phylogenomic investigation of the Basidiomycota. Results The genome assembly of a haploid strain of Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous revealed a genome of 19.50 Megabases with 6385 protein coding genes. Phylogenetic analyses were conducted including 48 fungal genomes. These revealed Ustilaginomycotina and Agaricomycotina as sister groups. In the latter a well-supported sister-group relationship of two major orders, Polyporales and Russulales, was inferred. Wallemia occupies a basal position within the Agaricomycotina and X. dendrorhous represents the basal lineage of the Tremellomycetes, highlighting that the typical tremelloid parenthesomes have either convergently evolved in Wallemia and the Tremellomycetes, or were lost in the Cystofilobasidiales lineage. A detailed characterization of the CoA-related pathways was done and all genes for fatty acid, sterol and carotenoid synthesis have been assigned. Conclusions The current study ascertains that Wallemia with tremelloid parenthesomes is the most basal agaricomycotinous lineage and that Cystofilobasidiales without tremelloid parenthesomes are deeply rooted within Tremellomycetes, suggesting that parenthesomes at septal pores might be the core synapomorphy for the Agaricomycotina. Apart from evolutionary insights the genome sequence of X. dendrorhous will facilitate genetic pathway engineering for optimized astaxanthin or oxidative alcohol production. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12864-015-1380-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.