Genomic sequence of the pathogenic and allergenic filamentous fungus Aspergillus fumigatus

William C Nierman (1, 2) , Arnab Pain (3) , Michael J Anderson (4) , Jennifer Wortman (2, 1) , H Stanley Kim (2, 1) , Javier Arroyo (5) , Matthew Berriman (3) , Keietsu Abe (6) , David B Archer (7) , Clara Bermejo , Joan Bennett , Paul Bowyer (4) , Dan Chen , Matthew Collins (3) , Richard Coulsen , Robert Davies (3) , Paul S Dyer (7) , Mark Farman (8) , Nadia Fedorova , Natalie Fedorova , Tamara V Feldblyum , Reinhard Fischer , Nigel Fosker , Audrey Fraser (3) , José García , Maria J García , Arlette Goble , Gustavo H Goldman (9) , Katsuya Gomi , Sam Griffith-Jones , Ryan Gwilliam , Brian Haas , Hubertus Haas (10) , David Harris , H. Horiuchi , Jiaqi Huang , Sean Humphray (3) , Javier F. Jiménez , Nancy Keller (11) , Hoda Khouri , Katsuhiko Kitamoto , Tetsuo Kobayashi , Sven Konzack , Resham Kulkarni , Toshitaka Kumagai , Anne Lafton (12) , Jean-Paul Latgé (13) , Weixi Li , Angela Lord , Charles Lu , William H Majoros , Gregory S May , Bruce L Miller , Yasmin Mohamoud , Maria Molina , Michel Monod (14) , Isabelle Mouyna (13) , Stephanie Mulligan , Lee Murphy , Susan O'Neil , Ian T. Paulsen , Miguel A Peñalva , Mihaela Pertea , Claire Price , Bethan L Pritchard , Michael A Quail (3) , Ester Rabbinowitsch (3) , Neil Rawlins , Marie-Adele Rajandream , Utz Reichard , Hubert Renauld , Geoffrey D Robson , Santiago Rodriguez de Córdoba , Jose M Rodríguez-Peña , Catherine M Ronning , Simon Rutter , Steven L Salzberg , Miguel Sanchez , Juan C Sánchez-Ferrero , David Saunders (3) , Kathy Seeger , Rob Squares , Steven Squares , Michio Takeuchi , Fredj Tekaia (13) , Geoffrey Turner , Carlos Vázquez de Aldana , Janice Weidman , Owen White , John Woodward , Jae-Hyuk Yu (11) , Claire Fraser , James E Galagan (15) , Kiyoshi Asai (16) , Masayuki Machida (16) , Neil Hall (3) , Bart Barrell (3) , David W Denning (4)

1 GW - The George Washington University
2 Institute for Genome Sciences [Baltimore]
3 The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute [Cambridge]
4 University of Manchester [Manchester]
5 UCM - Universidad Complutense de Madrid = Complutense University of Madrid [Madrid]
6 Tohoku University [Sendai]
7 UON - University of Nottingham, UK
8 UK - University of Kentucky
9 Faculdade de Ciências Farmacêuticas de Ribeirão Preto [São Paulo]
10 IMU - Innsbruck Medical University = Medizinische Universität Innsbruck
11 University of Wisconsin-Madison
12 BPF - Biologie et Pathogénicité fongiques
13 Aspergillus
14 CHUV - Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois [Lausanne]
15 BROAD INSTITUTE - Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
16 AIST - National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology

Aspergillus fumigatus is exceptional among microorganisms in being both a primary and opportunistic pathogen as well as a major allergen. Its conidia production is prolific, and so human respiratory tract exposure is almost constant. A. fumigatus is isolated from human habitats and vegetable compost heaps. In immunocompromised individuals, the incidence of invasive infection can be as high as 50% and the mortality rate is often about 50% (ref. 2). The interaction of A. fumigatus and other airborne fungi with the immune system is increasingly linked to severe asthma and sinusitis. Although the burden of invasive disease caused by A. fumigatus is substantial, the basic biology of the organism is mostly obscure. Here we show the complete 29.4-megabase genome sequence of the clinical isolate Af293, which consists of eight chromosomes containing 9,926 predicted genes. Microarray analysis revealed temperature-dependent expression of distinct sets of genes, as well as 700 A. fumigatus genes not present or significantly diverged in the closely related sexual species Neosartorya fischeri, many of which may have roles in the pathogenicity phenotype. The Af293 genome sequence provides an unparalleled resource for the future understanding of this remarkable fungus.

Domains: Mycology

William C Nierman, Arnab Pain, Michael J Anderson, Jennifer Wortman, H Stanley Kim, et al.. Genomic sequence of the pathogenic and allergenic filamentous fungus Aspergillus fumigatus. Nature, 2005, 438 (7071), pp.1151-1156. ⟨10.1038/nature04332⟩. ⟨pasteur-02639869⟩