2010 Annual Report 1a.Objectives (from AD-416) The specific objectives of the proposal are:. 1)sequence and assemble the genome of the wheat leaf rust fungus, Puccinia triticina;. 2)annotate the genome using ESTs;. 3)publicly release all data on a comparative website (Broad) and NCBI; and. 4)provide training opportunities for students and postdocs. 1b.Approach (from AD-416) Sequence and assemble the complete genome of P. triticina isolate 1-1, Race 1 (BBBD), which is estimated to be between 100 - 120 Mb, using a hybrid of 454 and ABI (Sanger) Fosmid-end sequence. Annotate gene structure using computational methods, 200,000 454 reads of ESTs from each of four new cDNA libraries, and other available ESTs. Evaluate P. triticina polymorphism and diversity by comparing the sequenced strain with three additional isolates using Illumina/Solexa sequence. Develop education, training and outreach programs. 3.Progress Report Rust disease cause major damage to the production of wheat and results in significant loss in yield each year. There are three different rust diseases of wheat; leaf rust, stem rust and stripe rust. Genomic approaches to understanding the process by which these rust fungi cause disease have recently begun. Biological materials were developed from the sexual stage of wheat leaf rust (Puccinia triticina) were developed for analysis of gene expression. Preliminary work on the characterization of the mitochondrial genomes of wheat leaf rust (P. triticina) and stem rust (Puccinia graminis) has begun. Regular e-mails and conference calls were used to monitor progress of this project.