Sporothrix schenckii Genome Project

Project Information

Sporothrix schenckii is a pathogenic dimorphic fungus with worldwide distribution. It is the causative agent of sporotrichosis, a cutaneous lymphatic fungal infection that can remained localized or can disseminate to internal organs. S. schenckii is a human pathogen closer to the filamentous fungi and plant pathogens, rather than to the customary human pathogens such as Candida albicans, Cryptococcus neoformans, and Ajellomyces capsulatus. Although a human pathogen, S. schenckii belongs to the family Ophiostomataceae that includes many important plant pathogens. Nevertheless, dimorphism is a characteristic it shares with the customary human pathogens. S. schenckii in its parasitic form shows ovoid yeast cells with single or multiple budding at 35-37 C. In its saprophytic form at ambient temperature, it develops hyaline, regularly septated hyphae and pyriform conidia which can be found single or in groups in a characteristic daisy-like arrangement. An unusual increase in the cases of sporotrichosis have been reported in many parts of the world, in some localities reaching epidemic proportions. This increase has been related to possible zoonotic transmission of the fungus rather than the usual method of innoculation by the traumatic implantation of spores under the skin.

We sequenced the genome of S. schenckii strain ATCC58251 using Illumina Technology. The primary collaborator for this project was Nuri Rodriguez-Del Valle, University of Puerto Rico.  This sequencing project was supported by funds from the Human Microbiome Project.

Data access and citation

The genome assembly and annotation of the Sporothrix schenckii genome is available in Genbank.

Data files formerly available on this website can be accessed on our fungal ftp site.

For use of this data, please cite: Cuomo et al "Genome Sequence of the Pathogenic Fungus Sporothrix schenckii (ATCC 58251)." Genome Announcements. 2014 May 22;2(3). pii: e00446-14.