SMURF: Genomic Mapping of Fungal Secondary Metabolite Clusters

Overview

Journal Fungal Genet Biol

Specialties Biology
Genetics
Microbiology

Date 2010 Jun 18

PMID 20554054

Citations 361

Authors

Nora Khaldi

Fayaz T Seifuddin

Geoff Turner

Daniel Haft

William C Nierman

Kenneth H Wolfe

Natalie D Fedorova

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Fungi produce an impressive array of secondary metabolites (SMs) including mycotoxins, antibiotics and pharmaceuticals. The genes responsible for their biosynthesis, export, and transcriptional regulation are often found in contiguous gene clusters. To facilitate annotation of these clusters in sequenced fungal genomes, we developed the web-based software SMURF (www.jcvi.org/smurf/) to systematically predict clustered SM genes based on their genomic context and domain content. We applied SMURF to catalog putative clusters in 27 publicly available fungal genomes. Comparison with genetically characterized clusters from six fungal species showed that SMURF accurately recovered all clusters and detected additional potential clusters. Subsequent comparative analysis revealed the striking biosynthetic capacity and variability of the fungal SM pathways and the correlation between unicellularity and the absence of SMs. Further genetics studies are needed to experimentally confirm these clusters.

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