Pyrenochaeta lycopersici ISPaVe ER 1252 v1.0
Tomato roots showing symptoms of corky root rot
Tomato roots showing symptoms of corky root rot.
Image by Hanna Friberg (SLU) used under CC BY-SA 4.0 from Wikimedia Commons.
Image Credit: Stephane Hacquard
Pyrenochaeta lycopersici growing in the lab.
Image Credit: Stephane Hacquard


Pyrenochaeta lycopersici (Ascomycota phylum, Dothideomycetes class, Pleosporales order) is a soil-borne fungal pathogen that causes corky root rot disease in tomato (Lycopersicum esculentum). The disease symptoms include stunting and loss of vigor, leading to poor yields. In Europe, the disease primarily occurs in crops grown in close succession under glass. Isolates of Pyrenochaeta lycopersici also infect other Solanaceous plant species such as pepper, tobacco, and eggplant, as well as eudicotyledonous plants, such as cucumber, melon, and spinach. The sequenced Pyrenochaeta lycopersici ISPaVe ER 1252* strain has been isolated from healthy Arabidopsis thaliana plants grown in natural soil after surface sterilization of plant roots. This suggests that the fungus can also colonize the roots of phylogenetically distant Brassicaceae species without causing disease symptoms. The sequencing of this fungal isolate is part of a larger project aiming at sequencing the genomes of numerous phylogenetically diverse root-associated fungi from Arabidopsis, Populus, and other plant hosts for further comparative genome analysis. Unravelling the genomic signatures reflecting the adaptation of these microbes to the host cell environment represent a promising way to better understand how the endophytic lifestyle evolved in phylogenetically unrelated fungal species. Comparative genome analysis between saprotrophic, mycorrhizal, and pathogenic fungi will provide new insights into the specific adaptations but also the conserved signatures associated with these different lifestyles.



*Note that the strain ID is based on the closest NCBI hit. We need to validate the phylogeny using whole genome sequencing data and attribute a novel strain ID.