@ARTICLE{TreeBASE2Ref20204,
author = {Nicholas A Milani and Daniel Paul Lawrence and A. Elizabeth Arnold and Hans VanEtten},
title = {Inheritance of Pisatin Demethylase (PDA) among the Fusaria and closely related taxa},
year = {2011},
keywords = {horizontal gene transfer, PDA, Fusarium},
doi = {},
url = {http://},
pmid = {},
journal = {Fungal Genetics and Biology},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
abstract = {Host specificity of plant pathogens is dictated by the presence of genes that enable the pathogen to circumvent host defenses. Upon recognition of the pathogen, plants initiate defense responses that can include the production of antimicrobial compounds such as phytoalexins. Nectria haematococca mating population VI (MPVI) is a filamentous ascomycete that contains a cluster of genes known as the pea pathogenicity (PEP) cluster in which the pisatin demethylase (PDA) gene resides. The PDA gene product is responsible for the detoxification of the phytoalexin pisatin, which is produced by the pea plant (Pisum sativum). Thus, PDA allows the fungus to colonize the host and become pathogenic. It has been proposed that the evolutionary origin of PDA and the PEP cluster is explained by a horizontal gene transfer (HGT) event. The observations supporting this hypothesis include the location of the PEP cluster which resides on a conditionally dispensable (CD) chromosome, the phylogenetically discontinuous distribution of the cluster among closely related species, and bias in GC content and codon usage as compared to other regions of the genome. The phylogenetic analyses presented here coupled with previous work provides robust support for the hypothesis of HGT of PDA and perhaps the entire PEP cluster or the whole CD chromosome between closely related fungi. }
}