Workshop Jan 6 - 8th 2016 - “Comparative genomic approaches to understanding the evolution of Magnaporthales”

Drs. Ning Zhang and Debashish Bhattacharya will host a workshop at Rutgers University,

 January 6 – 8, 2016 entitled 

“Comparative genomic approaches to understanding the evolution of Magnaporthales” 

Supported by the National Science Foundation and Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, this workshop will focus on improving the annotation of draft genomes of 5 fungal species in the order Magnaporthales (the rice stem rot fungus Nakataea oryzae = Magnaporthe salvinii; grass root-infecting Magnaporthiopsis rhizophila and Magnaporthiopsis incrustans; and saprotrophic, aquatic Ophioceras dolichostomum and Pseudohalonectria lignicola) coupled with a comparative analysis with the rice blast fungus and other pathogens in Magnaporthales.  In addition, we sequenced the transcriptomes of 21 taxa in the Magnaporthales (details in Luo et al. 2015. SCIENTIFIC REPORTS | 5 : 9448 | DOI: 10.1038/srep09448).  

The main goals of the workshop are to understand the evolution of pathogenicity, life style adaptation, and the evolution and putative functions of membrane associated proteins and transporters etc. This working group has the potential to make substantial discoveries using a genome wide approach.  The event will include BLAST and KEGG analysis to improve the gene models and to provide putative annotations for genes encoded in currently un-characterized regions of the genome, analysis of the functional categories listed above, short talks (15-20 min. each), and a final day to summarize and set future actions and timelines. We envision at least one major manuscript will be generated from the effort with all participants as co-authors, and concepts for other manuscripts and databases to be developed and shared during the workshop.  

Further Information to Follow