University of Tennessee plant pathologist Kurt Lamour is the lead biologist participating in a new $3 million effort to sequence the genome of Phytophthora capsici. P. capsici is a pathogen of vegetables that has devastating effects on the production of cucumbers, squashes, pumpkins, tomatoes, and peppers.

The project is supported through the microbial sequencing program administered jointly by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Research Initiative of the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (NRI-CSREES) and is also supported through a Community Sequencing Program award from the Joint Genome Institute (JGI) of the Department of Energy.

P. capsici is reported throughout the Western hemisphere, Asia, and Europe, and infects cacao and black pepper in addition to vegetable crops. Pathogens closely related to P. capsici cause sudden oak death, a threat to oak forests throughout the nation, and caused the famed Irish potato blight of the mid 1800’s.

The research effort will sequence five strains of P. capsici, and a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) database will be developed. The project includes traditional Sanger shotgun sequencing at the JGI as well as a novel sequencing technology developed by 454 LifeSciences. The 454 technology greatly accelerates genome sequencing, and with its lower cost has potential to impact all future genome-sequencing efforts.

“The effort has the potential to reap enormous benefits to science and producers,” says Lamour. “It’s the first time the 454 technology will be used to sequence a previously unsequenced eukaryotic genome.” Lamour estimates that P. capsici contains around 65 million nucleic bonds in its DNA sequence, making the project’s scale larger than any to date.

As for farmers, the plant pathologist said, “Molecular markers from this project will help us track the pathogen and develop better ways to control the blight.”

Other project participants include the National Center for Genome Resources (NCGR), Santa Fe, N.M., the Ohio State University and the JGI.

Lamour’s laboratory will receive $200,000 over the course of two years to provide P. capsici strains for sequencing and will develop a population resource with the more than 5000 isolates he has recovered from vegetable farms in Tennessee and throughout the nation.