Catenaria anguillulaehas been studied in recent years because of its behaviour as a facultative parasite of agriculturally important nematode parasites of crop plants. (JGI-MycoCosm 2015)
Although there is a history of light and electron microscopic studies, little molecular work has been done with this fungus, other than phylogenetic systematic studies (James et al., 2006; Porter et al., in prep). A genome sequence forC. anguillulaewill aid the development of probes and primers for additional phylogenetic and environmental sampling studies that would facilitate identification and monitoring of wild isolates. AfterAllomyces macrogynus, this would be only the second member of the fungal phylum Blastocladiomycota with a sequenced genome. These species represent two of the most tractable organisms in the phylum, whereas other genera in the Blastocladiomycota represent obligate plant or insect pathogens that cannot be grown in the lab without their host, or opportunistic pathogens and saprophytes that are difficult to propagate in the lab because of slow growth rates and small fungal "body" size. Genome sequencing of non-model organisms can provide a valuable point of comparison for environmental metagenomic and metatranscriptomic studies.C. anguillulaemay also be considered for its economic importance, as it is a facultative parasite of nematodes that can parasitize crop plants.C. anguillulaemeets DOE criterion as a representative of an un-sampled basal fungal lineage. (JGI-MycoCosm 2015)
