: a transposon facilitating the movement of the virulence factor ToxA in fungal wheat pathogens.

There is increasing evidence that mobile genetic elements can drive the emergence of pathogenic fungal species by moving virulence genes horizontally. The 14 kbp transposon was shown to move the necrotrophic effector, horizontally between wheat pathogens, namely , , and . All three species utilize the ToxA protein to infect wheat.

Complexity of the lichen symbiosis revealed by metagenome and transcriptome analysis of Xanthoria parietina.

Lichens are composite, symbiotic associations of fungi, algae, and bacteria that result in large, anatomically complex organisms adapted to many of the world's most challenging environments. How such intricate, self-replicating lichen architectures develop from simple microbial components remains unknown because of their recalcitrance to experimental manipulation. Here, we report a metagenomic and metatranscriptomic analysis of the lichen Xanthoria parietina at different developmental stages.

That's no moon, it's a Starship: Giant transposons driving fungal horizontal gene transfer.

To date, most reports of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) in fungi rely on genome sequence data and are therefore an indirect measure of HGT after the event has occurred. However, a novel group of class II-like transposons known as Starships may soon alter this status quo. Starships are giant transposable elements that carry dozens of genes, some of which are host-beneficial, and are linked to many recent HGT events in the fungal kingdom.