Rhizopus microsporus

The terrestrial filamentous fungus Rhizopus microsporus (Strain ID ATCC 62417) is a zygomycete. It forms rhizoid and grow in hyphal extension which is white and aerial fungal morphologies (Schipper & Stalpers, 1984). The phytopathogenic strains of R. microsporus are the causative agent of several rice blights that is significant devastation to rice trade (Scherlach, 2013). In addition to this they are famous of being host to the well studied bacterial-fungal endosymbiotic interaction as being host of several Burkholderia species (Partida-Martinez, 2005). In this tripartite interaction, R. microsporus uses the endosymbiont Burkholderia rhizoxinica as a toxin factory that damages the rice (Partida-Martinez, 2007a). Surprisingly, bacteria-free fungus lost its ability to produce neither mature sporangia nor vegetative spores (Partida-Martinez, 2007b). In this project, we sequenced a bacterium-free (strain CBS 344.29) and endosymbiotic (strain ATCC 62417) Rhizopus microspporus.