Bacterial-type endochitinases as phylogenetic markers for fungal entomopathogens and mycoparasites

Two types of endochitinases referred to as bacterial or B-type and fungal or F-type are known to operate in fungi. While F-type chitinases are generally believed to have morphogenetic functions, Btype chitinases are often associated with pathogenesis in fungal entomopathogens and mycoparasites. Comparative genomics has previously identified at least four fungal B-type chitinase subfamilies termed chiB1 through chiB4. Here we explore the suitability of the chiB1 gene as a phylogenetic marker for the classification of a particular subgroup of filamentous fungi, i.e. entomopathogenic and mycoparasitic hyphomycetes, and apply this marker to the classification to a set of fungal isolates from Uzbekistan.