Genomic sequence of the pathogenic and allergenic filamentous fungus Aspergillus fumigatus

William C. Nierman*, Arnab Pain, Michael J. Anderson, Jennifer R. Wortman, H. Stanley Kim, Javier Arroyo, Matthew Berriman, Keietsu Abe, David B. Archer, Clara Bermejo, Joan Bennett, Paul Bowyer, Dan Chen, Matthew Collins, Richard Coulsen, Robert Davies, Paul S. Dyer, Mark Farman, Nadia Fedorova, Natalie FedorovaTamara V. Feldblyum, Reinhard Fischer, Nigel Fosker, Audrey Fraser, Jose L. García, Maria J. García, Ariette Goble, Gustavo H. Goldman, Katsuya Gomi, Sam Griffith-Jones, Ryan Gwilliam, Brian Haas, Hubertus Haas, David Harris, H. Horiuchi, Jiaqi Huang, Sean Humphray, Javier Jiménez, Nancy Keller, Hoda Khouri, Katsuhiko Kitamoto, Tetsuo Kobayashi, Sven Konzack, Resham Kulkarni, Toshitaka Kumagai, Anne Lafton, Jean Paul Latgé, Weixi Li, Angela Lord, Charles Lu, William H. Majoros, Gregory S. May, Bruce L. Miller, Yasmin Mohamoud, Maria Molina, Michel Monod, Isabelle Mouyna, Stephanie Mulligan, Lee Murphy, Susan O'Neil, Ian Paulsen, Miguel A. Peñalva, Mihaela Pertea, Claire Price, Bethan L. Pritchard, Michael A. Quail, Ester Rabbinowitsch, Neil Rawlins, Marie Adele Rajandream, Utz Reichard, Hubert Renauld, Geoffrey D. Robson, Santiago Rodriguez De Cordoba, Jose M. Rodríguez-Peña, Catherine M. Ronning, Simon Rutter, Steven L. Salzberg, Miguel Sanchez, Juan C. Sánchez-Ferrero, David Saunders, Kathy Seeger, Rob Squares, Steven Squares, Michio Takeuchi, Fredj Tekaia, Geoffrey Turner, Carlos R. Vazquez De Aldana, Janice Weidman, Owen White, John Woodward, Jae Hyuk Yu, Claire Fraser, James E. Galagan, Kiyoshi Asai, Masayuki Machida, Neil Hall, Bart Barrell, David W. Denning

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1164 Scopus citations

Abstract

Aspergillus fumigatus is exceptional among microorganisms in being both a primary and opportunistic pathogen as well as a major allergen1-3. Its conidia production is prolific, and so human respiratory tract exposure is almost constant4. A. fumigatus is isolated from human habitats 5 and vegetable compost heaps6,7. In immunocompromised individuals, the incidence of invasive infection can be as high as 50% and the mortality rate is often about 50% (ref. 2). The interaction of A. fumigatus and other airborne fungi with the immune system is increasingly linked to severe asthma and sinusitis8. Although the burden of invasive disease caused by A. fumigatus is substantial, the basic biology of the organism is mostly obscure. Here we show the complete 29.4-megabase genome sequence of the clinical isolate Af293, which consists of eight chromosomes containing 9,926 predicted genes. Microarray analysis revealed temperature-dependent expression of distinct sets of genes, as well as 700 A. fumigatus genes not present or significantly diverged in the closely related sexual species Neosartorya fischeri, many of which may have roles in the pathogenicity phenotype. The Af293 genome sequence provides an unparalleled resource for the future understanding of this remarkable fungus.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1151-1156
Number of pages6
JournalNATURE
Volume438
Issue number7071
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 22 2005
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Acknowledgements Initial work was funded by the Fungal Research Trust and Burroughs Wellcome Fund. Major funding came from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the Wellcome Trust and the Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias. Construction of the Af293 microarray was funded by NIAID. Additional BAC end sequencing was funded internally by the Institut Pasteur. We thank D. Dixon, C. Caulcott, V. McGovern, P. Goodwin and J.-L. Rodriguez-Tudela for their support and encouragement during this project. We also thank C. Staben of the University of Kentucky for intellectual assistance and script development.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

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