Abstract
Aspergillus fumigatus is the most ubiquitous opportunistic filamentous fungal pathogen of human. As an initial step toward sequencing the entire genome of
A. fumigatus, which is estimated to be ∼30
Mb in size, we have sequenced a 922
kb region, contained within 16 overlapping bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) clones. Fifty-four percent of the DNA is predicted to be coding with 341 putative protein coding genes. Functional classification of the proteins showed the presence of a higher proportion of enzymes and membrane transporters when compared to those of
Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In addition to the nitrate assimilation gene cluster, the quinate utilisation gene cluster is also present on this 922
kb genomic sequence. We observed large scale synteny between
A. fumigatus and
Aspergillus nidulans by comparing this sequence to the
A. nidulans genetic map of linkage group VIII.