Regions of microsynteny in Magnaporthe grisea and Neurospora crassa

A bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) clone containing 110,467 bp of geno mic DNA from Magnaporthe grisea was sequenced, annotated, and compared to t he genomes of Neurospora crassa, Candida albicans, and Saccharomyces cerevi siae. Twenty-six open reading frames (ORFs), involved in multiple biochemic al pathways, were identified in the BAC sequence. A region of 53 kb, contai ning 18 of the 26 ORFs, was found to be syntenic to a portion of the N. cra ssa genome. Subregions of complete colinearity as well as interrupted colin earity were present. No synteny was evident with either C. albicans or S. c erevisiae. The identification of syntenic regions containing highly conserv ed genes across two genera that have been evolutionarily separated for simi lar to 200 million years elicits many biological questions as to the functi on and identity of these genes. (C) 2001 Academic Press.