We have sequenced the genome of grass pea (Lathyrus sativus), a resilient diploid (2n=14) legume closely related to pea (Pisum sativum). We determined the genome size of the sequenced European accession (LS007) as 6.3 Gbp. We generated two assemblies of this genome, i) EIv1 using Illumina PCR-free paired-end sequencing and assembly followed by long-mate-pair scaffolding and ii) Rbp using Oxford Nanopore Technologies long-read sequencing and assembly followed by polishing with Illumina paired-end data. EIv1 has a total length of 8.12 Gbp (including 1.9 billion Ns) and scaffold N50 59,7 kbp. Annotation has identified 33,819 high confidence genes in the assembly. Rbp has a total length of 6.2 Gbp (with no Ns) and a contig N50 of 155.7 kbp. Gene space assessment using the eukaryote BUSCO database showed completeness scores of 82.8 % and 89.8%, respectively.

A disease characterized by the absence of sporulation on leaves and evident necrosis underneath the bark tissues affected adult tobacco plants during 2005 in south Italy. In the field, diagnosis was based mainly on recognition of symptoms, often non-specific, resulting in the application of the wrong control strategy. Two current diagnostic methods based on microscopic observations were compared with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique. DNA extraction protocol was modified by replacing sonication with a further lysis step at 60°C and PCR was performed using primers that amplified a specific DNA fragment (230 bp). Microscopy methods were able to detect the pathogen in 50% and 6% of cases, respectively, while PCR was able to detect Peronospora tabacina in all diseased plants. Elimination of sonication in DNA extraction rendered the method easier to perform and avoided the possibility of DNA fragmentation. The results demonstrated that PCR makes the diagnosis fast and reliable while microscopy gives discontinuous results, is time-consuming and not applicable for monitoring.

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Caiazzo, R., Kim, Y. K., and Xiao, C. L. 2014. Occurrence and phenotypes of pyrimethanil resistance in Pénicillium expansum from apple in Washington State. Plant Dis. 98:924-928.