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SSU rRNA reveals major trends in oomycete evolution

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Abstract

Oomycetes are a group of heterokonts that have a huge impact on the environment as well as on human welfare, due the parasitic nature of many species. However, their evolutionary patterns are still not well understood, due in part to the lack of molecular markers suited to resolve the deep phylogeny of this group. Here, we propose a phylogeny of the whole clade based on the nuclear ribosomal small subunit gene, that comprises both culture and environmental studies derived sequences. Our analysis shows notably that i) plant pathogenesis occurred only rarely in oomycete evolution in comparison to animal parasitism ii) obligate symbiosis happened only in a few derived groups and iii) transitions from soil/freshwater to marine environment (and viceversa) are common unlike for most eukaryotic groups. This study illustrates the complexity of evolutionary patterns and will help to better understand the emergence of pathogenicity in the different oomycete groups.

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Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the Swiss State Secretariat for Education and Research (grant reference: SER No. C09.0139) and the European Union for the projects ISEFOR “Increasing Sustainability of European Forests: Modelling for Security against Invasive Pests and Pathogens under Climate Change (FP7-KBBE-2009-3 call, Proposal number: 245268) and the COST action FP0801 “Established and Emerging Phytophthora: Increasing Threats to Woodland and Forest Ecosystems in Europe”. The authors would like to thank Mário Rui Proença Santos (Universidade Tecnica de Lisboa - Portugal) for the Albugo infected Brassica rapa plant material.

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  1. Institute of Biology, Laboratory of Soil Biology, University of Neuchâtel, CH-2009, Neuchâtel, Switzerland

    Enrique Lara & Lassaad Belbahri

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  1. Enrique Lara
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  2. Lassaad Belbahri
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Correspondence to Lassaad Belbahri.

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Lara, E., Belbahri, L. SSU rRNA reveals major trends in oomycete evolution. Fungal Diversity 49, 93–100 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13225-011-0098-9

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