The putative genes encoding proteins involved in PCD were identified at the TuberDB Tuber genome database (http://mycor.nancy.inra.fr/IMGC/TuberGenome/). Searches were also performed using several protein databases (e.g., NPS@:BLAST HomologySearch: https://npsa-prabi.ibcp.fr/cgi-bin/npsa_automat.pl?page=/NPSA/npsa_blast.html; Interpro: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/interpro/; Pfam: http://www.sanger.ac.uk/Software/Pfam/; Prosite: http://www.expasy.org/prosite/; Uniprot: http://www.pir.uniprot.org/; Superfamily: http://supfam.cs.bris.ac.uk/SUPERFAMILY/), as well as genome and EST databases (NCBI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/; Yeast database: http://ycelldeath.com/) were searched for PCD-related sequences in order to probe the Tuber genome database using BLAST algorithms. The detected putative homologs were characterized on the basis of the conserved domains, identities and E-values. Further information about the name and structure of the genes was obtained using BLASTP, which is available on NCBI (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/) and EMBL (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/Tools/blastall/index.html). Each validated homolog was also used for a BLAST search at http://mycor.nancy.inra.fr/IMGC/TuberGenome/blast.html, which has a database with five reference Ascomycota: Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Neurospora crassa Shear &B.O. Dodge, Magnaporthe grisea (T.T.Hebert)M.E.Barr, Aspergillus nidulans (Eidam)G.Winter and Botrytis cinerea Pers., and at https://genome.jgi.doe.gov/pages/blast-query.jsf?db=Tubbor1 which has a database with Tuber borchii Vittad genome.