Rust fungi (Uredinales) are obligate plant parasites with a wide range of plant hosts that include ferns, gymnosperms and angiosperms. Puccinia graminis f.sp. tritici, the causal agent of stem rust of wheat, has been the most devastating fungal pathogen of wheat. Epidemics of the early 1950's destroyed more than 400 million bushels of wheat in North America. The results of this project will enable the use of genomic and other approaches to elucidate the mechanisms of pathogenicity and the nature of the biotrophic life-style of rust fungi. The specific objectives of this research are: (1) to produce an assembled genome sequence of one isolate of P. graminis f.sp. tritici with at least 8X coverage; (2) to develop a physical map of P. graminis via DNA fingerprinting fosmid clones; (3) to develop 40,000 ESTs from full length cDNA libraries representing four different stages of fungal development; (4) to integrate EST and, genetic and physical mapping data with the assembled sequence; (5) to annotate the genomic sequence and make these data publicly available through user friendly web-based tools and interfaces; and (6) to train undergraduate students and Postdoctoral Research Fellows in bioinformatics and fungal genomics.
