The First Mitochondrial Genome of Ciborinia camelliae and Its Position in the Sclerotiniaceae Family

Abstract

Ciborinia camelliae is the causal agent of camellia flower blight (CFB). It is a hemibiotrophic pathogen, inoperculate Discomycete of the family Sclerotiniaceae. It shows host and organ specificity infecting only flowers of species belonging to the genus Camellia, causing serious damage to the ornamental component of the plant. In this work, the first mitochondrial genome of Ciborinia camellia is reported. The mitogenome was obtained by combining Illumina short read and Nanopore long read technology. To resolve repetitive elements, specific primers were designed and used for Sanger sequencing. The manually curated mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of the Italian strain DSM 112729 is a circular sequence of 114,660 bp, with 29.6% of GC content. It contains two ribosomal RNA genes, 33 transfer RNAs, one RNase P gene, and 62 protein-coding genes. The latter include one gene coding for a ribosomal protein (rps3) and the 14 typical proteins involved in the oxidative metabolism. Moreover, a partial mtDNA assembled from a contig list was obtained from the deposited genome assembly of a New Zealand strain of C. camelliae. The present study contributes to understanding the mitogenome arrangement and the evolution of this phytopathogenic fungus in comparison to other Sclerotiniaceae species and confirms the usefulness of mitochondrial analysis to define phylogenetic positioning of this newly sequenced species.

Molecular Characterization of Ciborinia camelliae Kohn Shows Intraspecific Variability and Suggests Transcontinental Movement of the Pathogen

“…Over the years, many aspects of C. camelliae taxonomy and its relations with the family Sclerotiniaceae have been clarified [4,39,40]. On the other hand, the information on its ecology, the relationships with both environmental factors and the host, and the uniformity of its population are still limited [1,41].…”

Exploring Mitogenomes Diversity of Fusarium musae from Banana Fruits and Human Patients

“…Extensive mitochondrial genome comparisons within the fungal kingdom have shown that any gene has a mitochondrial localization in all fungal species [13], suggesting that the use of mitochondrial gene diversity cannot be applied as a universal marker for fungi. Nonetheless, the analysis of mitochondrial diversity can be successfully applied to differentiate species within orders [14] or species [15,16]. For example, a unique feature apparently common in all Fusarium species is the presence of a large open reading frame with an unknown function (LV-uORF) firstly described in mitogenomes of F. graminearum, F. verticillioides and F. solani [17] and probably acquired prior to the divergence of Fusarium species.…”