Between Roquefort and Camembert: Multiple recent gene transfers

In the paste of Roquefort and on the surface of Camembert, the microscopic filamentous fungi Penicillium roqueforti and Penicillium camembertii are responsible for the formation of a greenish-blue mould in the former case and a so-called "bloom" in the latter. Sequencing of the genomes of these two fungi has recently, and surprisingly, shown that these genomes contain more than 250 strictly identical genes, thus indicating a transfer of genes between these two species. This type of event, until now little described in eukaryotes, may therefore be much more common than previously thought.

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