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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Tifton, Georgia » Crop Genetics and Breeding Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #385028
Research Project: Improvement of Genetic Resistance to Multiple Biotic and Abiotic Stresses in Peanut

Location: Crop Genetics and Breeding Research

Title: Lessons learned: the importance of biological curation

Author
item FOUNTAIN, J - Mississippi State University
item CLEVENGER, J - Hudsonalpha Institute For Biotechnology
item Vaughn, Justin
item Guo, Baozhu

Submitted to: Microbiology Resource Announcements
Publication Type: Research Notes
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/7/2021
Publication Date: 12/2/2021
Citation: Fountain, J., Clevenger, J., Vaughn, J.N., Guo, B. 2021. Lessons learned: the importance of biological curation. Microbiology Resource Announcements. Volume 10 Issue 48.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1128/MRA.00473-21

Interpretive Summary: Not required.

Technical Abstract: Proper species identification of sequenced fungal isolates or strains is imperative for the interpretation of genomics data. Through this letter of Houbraken et al. to Editor of Microbiology Resource Announcements and another recently published BMC Research Notes by Chang et al., it has come to our attention that one of the isolates presented in our previous publication in this journal of Microbiology Resource Announcements was misidentified. The presumptive Aspergillus parasiticus isolate NRRL 2999 has been shown to be an A. flavus isolate, a clonal derivative of A. flavus NRRL 3357 by Chang et al. Since there are two genome sequence datasets for A. parasiticus SU-1 in NCBI and A. parasiticus SU-1 and NRRL 2999 are actually the same isolate, we plan to remove the current sequence data for the misidentified “NRRL 2999” from NCBI. However, this situation does highlight the danger inherent in large scale genome sequencing experiments where the identity of isolates is presumed correct based on identification provided by the source of an isolate. Therefore, we must join with Houbraken et al. in agreement that additional safeguards be taken to ensure the proper identification of isolates before conclusions are made based on sequencing data.