Study of the mitochondrial genome of Puccinia psidii Winter causal agent of rust on Eucalyptus spp.

• Grant number: 13/21822-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: December 01, 2013
• End date: November 30, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Genetics - Molecular Genetics and Genetics of Microorganisms
• Principal Investigator: Maria Carolina Quecine Verdi
• Grantee: Jaqueline Raquel de Almeida
• Host Institution: Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALQ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The culture of Eucalyptus in Brazil is one of most important for the country's economy, which occupies the place 4th in the ranking of world pulp production. The culture has been affected by a disease named rust eucalyptus, caused by the fungus Puccinia psidii Winter, which is responsible for serious economic damage to the crop. Despite the importance of Eucalyptus, we have little information about the biology of this fungus.The mitochondrial metabolism has been increasingly used to control fungal diseases, because these simple metabolic disorders can cause great damage to the respiratory chain, triggering both a decrease in growth rate as the virulence of the fungus. Thus, this project aims to get the complete assembly and annotation of the mitochondrial genome of P. psidii for the study of possible genes that confer the fungal pathogenicity, as well as perform a comparative study of the mitochondrial genome of P. psidii, with the mitochondrial genomes of other species of the genus already sequenced. Thus, understanding the mitochondrial metabolism of the fungus P. psidii can be an alternative for the control of rust disease of Eucalyptus as well as collaborate with understanding the biology of this pathogen.