Phytophthora infestans
Phytophthora infestans, an important plant pathogen and
causative
agent of the great
famine in Ireland (1845), belongs to the phylum Oomycetes.
Initially,
Oomycetes had been classified as lower fungi, but recent molecular
analysis
of the nuclear srRNA gene as well as ultrastructural data clearly show
that they group together with the stramenopile lineage (golden and
brown
algae, diatoms, etc.).
References
- Paquin B, Laforest M-J, Forget L, Roewer I, Zhang W, Longcore
J,
and Lang BF (1997) "The Fungal Mitochondrial Genome Project: evolution
of fungal mitochondrial genomes and their gene expression." Current
Genetics, in press
- Chesnick JM, Tuxbury K, Coleman A, Burger G and Lang BF (1996)
"Utility
of the mitochondrial nad4L gene for algal and protistan phylogenetic
analysis."
J Phycol 32: 452-456. Abstract
- Gunderson JH, Elwood H, Ingold A, Kindle K, Sogin ML (1987)
PNAS
84:5823-5827.
- Barr DJS (1981) BioSystems 14:359-370.
More information on Oomycetes
(at Berkeley)