Microascus trigonosporus C.W. Emmons & B.O. Dodge (Microascales, Microascaceae) is a homothallic filamentous fungus that is distributed worldwide. It has been isolated from a diverse range of substrates including desert and grassland soils, from agricultural products such as barley, rice, and soybeans; but has also been isolated from mouse and human skin infections and has been implicated in at least one human death via active growth in a lung infection of an immuno-compromised patient. It produces darkly pigmented flask-shaped reproductive structures called perithecia, but in contrast to most filamentous ascomycetes, M. trigonosporus passively ejects in ascospores through the breakdown of the ascus cell wall. The Microascales also contains the largest family of obligate marine fungi, Halosphaeriaceae, which is closely related to M. trigonosporus. Sequencing this genome will empower researchers to improve crop quality in the agricultural sector, provide insight in the diversity of enzymes involved in growth on a wide variety of substrates, and may prove important in biomedical research involving fungal infections in humans. This genome will also be used for comparative genomics of a member of the Halosphaeriaceae to study the evolution of salt tolerance in marine fungi.
