地点：微生物实验室--实验楼524
Fungal comparative genomics:

Comparative genomics is the comparison of sequence data of whole genomes. With the advent of Next Generation Sequencing Technologies, the availability of complete genomes is increasing exponentially, and because of their smaller size, there are more fungal genomes completed than any other major eukaryotic taxa. The purpose of this research was to find common fungal sequences shared between a dozen of the earliest sequenced filamentous fungal genomes. Then these core fungal genes were compared to the other major higher eukaryotic taxa to find commonalities. The age of these genes was extrapolated from the taxa which shared them, and the possibility of horizontal gene transfers between fungi and plants was explored.

Short Bio for Tom Hsiang
Dr. Tom Hsiang is a Professor in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of Guelph, specializing in plant diseases. Before arriving in Guelph, he worked on flower and tree diseases in Washington State, U.S.A, where he obtained his Ph.D. (University of Washington) and conducted post-doctoral studies (Washington State University). He is originally from Vancouver, B.C., and obtained his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Forest Biology/Pathology at the University of British Columbia. His current teaching and research involve diseases of trees and turfgrasses, particularly biology of fungal pathogens and disease management, as well as fungal comparative genomics and genome sequencing & assembly.