title: Comparative genome analysis of entomopathogenic fungi reveals a complex set of secreted proteins.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Metarhizium anisopliae is an entomopathogenic fungus used in the biological control of some agricultural insect pests, and efforts are underway to use this fungus in the control of insect-borne human diseases. A large repertoire of proteins must be secreted by M. anisopliae to cope with the various available nutrients as this fungus switches through different lifestyles, i.e., from a saprophytic, to an infectious, to a plant endophytic stage. To further evaluate the predicted secretome of M. anisopliae, we employed genomic and transcriptomic analyses, coupled with phylogenomic analysis, focusing on the identification and characterization of secreted proteins.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We determined the M. anisopliae E6 genome sequence and compared this sequence to other entomopathogenic fungi genomes. A robust pipeline was generated to evaluate the predicted secretomes of M. anisopliae and 15 other filamentous fungi, leading to the identification of a core of secreted proteins. Transcriptomic analysis using the tick Rhipicephalus microplus cuticle as an infection model during two periods of infection (48 and 144 h) allowed the identification of several differentially expressed genes. This analysis concluded that a large proportion of the predicted secretome coding genes contained altered transcript levels in the conditions analyzed in this study. In addition, some specific secreted proteins from Metarhizium have an evolutionary history similar to orthologs found in Beauveria/Cordyceps. This similarity suggests that a set of secreted proteins has evolved to participate in entomopathogenicity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The data presented represents an important step to the characterization of the role of secreted proteins in the virulence and pathogenicity of M. anisopliae.
authors.forename: Charley Christian
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Staats
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Junges
authors.forename: Rafael Lucas Muniz
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Guedes
authors.forename: Claudia Elizabeth
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.forename: Guilherme Loss
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: de Morais
authors.forename: Juliano Tomazzoni
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Boldo
authors.forename: Luiz Gonzaga Paula
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: de Almeida
authors.forename: Fábio Carrer
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: Andreis
authors.forename: Alexandra Lehmkuhl
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Gerber
authors.forename: Nicolau
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sbaraini
authors.forename: Rana Louise de Andrade
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: da Paixão
authors.forename: Leonardo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Broetto
authors.forename: Melissa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Landell
authors.forename: Lucélia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Santi
authors.forename: Walter Orlando
authors.initials: WO
authors.lastname: Beys-da-Silva
authors.forename: Carolina Pereira
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Silveira
authors.forename: Thaiane Rispoli
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Serrano
authors.forename: Eder Silva
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: de Oliveira
authors.forename: Lívia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kmetzsch
authors.forename: Marilene Henning
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Vainstein
authors.forename: Ana Tereza Ribeiro
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: de Vasconcelos
authors.affiliation: Centro de Biotecnologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), P, O, Box 15005, Porto Alegre, RS CEP 91501-970, Brazil. aschrank@cbiot.ufrgs.br.
authors.forename: Augusto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schrank
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D055028:Comparative Genomic Hybridization; D005656:Fungal Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D016681:Genome, Fungal; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions / Q000235:genetics; D052981:Metarhizium / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D048494:Rhipicephalus / Q000378:metabolism / Q000382:microbiology; D017423:Sequence Analysis, RNA
chemical_list: D005656:Fungal Proteins