Insight into plant cell wall degradation and pathogenesis of Ganoderma boninense via comparative genome analysis

is a hemibiotrophic fungus that infects oil palms ( Jacq.) causing basal stem rot (BSR) disease and consequent massive economic losses to the oil palm industry. The pathogenicity of this white-rot fungus has been associated with cell wall degrading enzymes (CWDEs) released during saprophytic and necrotrophic stage of infection of the oil palm host. However, there is a lack of information available on the essentiality of CWDEs in wood-decaying process and pathogenesis of this oil palm pathogen especially at molecular and genome levels. In this study, comparative genome analysis was carried out using the NJ3 genome to identify and characterize carbohydrate-active enzyme (CAZymes) including CWDE in the fungal genome. Augustus pipeline was employed for gene identification in NJ3 and the produced protein sequences were analyzed via dbCAN pipeline and PhiBase 4.5 database annotation for CAZymes and plant-host interaction (PHI) gene analysis, respectively. Comparison of CAZymes from NJ3 was made against , a well-studied model sp. and five selected pathogenic fungi for CAZymes characterization. Functional annotation of PHI genes was carried out using Web Gene Ontology Annotation Plot (WEGO) and was used for selecting candidate PHI genes related to cell wall degradation of NJ3. was enriched with CAZymes and CWDEs in a similar fashion to that corroborate with the lignocellulolytic abilities of both closely-related fungal strains. The role of polysaccharide and cell wall degrading enzymes in the hemibiotrophic mode of infection of was investigated by analyzing the fungal CAZymes with necrotrophic , , biotrophic , and hemibiotrophic . Profiles of the selected pathogenic fungi demonstrated that necrotizing pathogens including NJ3 exhibited an extensive set of CAZymes as compared to the more CAZymes-limited biotrophic pathogens. Following PHI analysis, several candidate genes including polygalacturonase, endo β-1,3-xylanase, β-glucanase and laccase were identified as potential CWDEs that contribute to the plant host interaction and pathogenesis. This study employed bioinformatics tools for providing a greater understanding of the biological mechanisms underlying the production of CAZymes in NJ3. Identification and profiling of the fungal polysaccharide- and lignocellulosic-degrading enzymes would further facilitate in elucidating the infection mechanisms through the production of CWDEs by . Identification of CAZymes and CWDE-related PHI genes in would serve as the basis