Sequence analysis of the chitin synthase A gene of the Dutch elm pathogen Ophiostoma novo-ulmi indicates a close association with the human pathogen Sporothrix schenckii

Abstract

Degenerate oligonucleotide primers were designed according to conserved regions of the chitin synthase gene family and used to amplify a 621 basepair (bp) fragment from genomic DNA of Ophiostoma novo-ulmi, the causal agent of Dutch elm disease. The amplification product was used as a hybridization probe to screen a library of genomic DNA sequences and to retrieve a full-length chitin synthase gene (chsA). The putative coding region of the gene was 2619 bp long, lacked introns, and encoded a polypeptide of 873 amino acids. Based on the similarity of the predicted amino acid sequence to the full-length chsC gene of Aspergillus nidulans and chsA gene of Ampelomyces quisqualis, the O. novo-ulmi chsA was classified as a Class I chitin synthase. The phylogenies constructed, according to a subregion of all available chitin synthases, showed that O. novo-ulmi consistently clustered most closely with the human pathogen Sporothrix schenckii, recently classified as a member of the mitosporic Ophiostomataceae. Disruption of the chsA gene locus had no obvious effects on the growth or morphology of the fungus.