title: Ustilago maydis, a new fungal model system for cell biology.
abstract: The use of fungal model systems, such as Saccharomyces cerevisisae and Schizosaccharomyces pombe, has contributed enormously to our understanding of essential cellular processes in animals. Here, we introduce the corn smut fungus Ustilago maydis as a new model organism for studying cell biological processes. Genome-wide analysis demonstrates that U. maydis is more closely related to humans than to budding yeast, and numerous proteins are shared only by U. maydis and Homo sapiens. Growing evidence suggests that basic principles of long-distance transport, mitosis and motor-based microtubule organization are conserved between U. maydis and humans. The fungus U. maydis, therefore, offers a unique system for the study of certain mammalian processes.
authors.affiliation: Max Planck-Institut für Terrestrische Mikrobiologie, Karl-von-Frisch-Str., D-35037 Marburg, Germany; School of Bioscience, University of Exeter, Stocker Road, Exeter, EX4 4QD, UK. G.Steinberg@exeter.ac.u
authors.forename: Gero
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Steinberg
authors.forename: Jose
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Perez-Martin
mesh_terms: D001692:Biological Transport / Q000502:physiology; D016764:Cell Polarity / Q000502:physiology; D004260:DNA Repair; D023281:Genomics; D006801:Humans; D008870:Microtubules / Q000502:physiology; D008938:Mitosis / Q000502:physiology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D040901:Proteomics; D014588:Ustilago / Q000166:cytology / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology