Among the Fungi
Posted By Caulimovirus on January 28, 2010
.: Harvard has a nifty website for the Computational Biology and Functional Genomics Laboratory where one can find valuable tools used in studies of computational biology and functional genomics. One subset of the site is the Gene Index Project, which separates the available gene indices into four broad categories: Animals, Plants, Protist, and Fungi.
.: Not at all representative of the diversity in tree of life, the site has 42 gene indices available under Animals, 47 under Plants, 15 under Protist, and 10 under Fungi. Curiously, under the Fungi tab they advertise the gene index for Phytophthora infestans, more famously known as Potato Late Blight (AKA, the scourge of the Irish). It’s curious because P. infestans is an oomycete, and these tiny guys are as closely related to fungi as fungi are related to animals.
.: It’s a common mistake to group late blight among the fungi, but I would expect the folks at Harvard to know better.
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