The draft nuclear genomes of Diplodia sapinea, Ceratocystis moniliformis s. str., and C. manginecans are presented. Diplodia sapinea is an important shoot-blight and canker pathogen of Pinus spp., C. moniliformis is a saprobe associated with wounds on a wide range of woody angiosperms and C. manginecans is a serious wilt pathogen of mango and Acacia mangium. The genome size of D. sapinea is estimated at 36.97 Mb and contains 13 020 predicted genes. Ceratocystis moniliformis includes 25.43 Mb and is predicted to encode at least 6 832 genes. This is smaller than that reported for the mango wilt pathogen C. manginecans which is 31.71 Mb and is predicted to encode at least 7 494 genes. The latter is thus more similar to C. fimbriata s.str., the type species of the genus. The genome sequences presented here provide an important resource to resolve issues pertaining to the taxonomy, biology and evolution of these fungi.

The genomes of Chrysoporthe austroafricana, Diplodia scrobiculata, Fusarium nygami, Leptographium lundbergii, Limonomyces culmigenus, Stagonosporopsis tanaceti, and Thielaviopsis punctulata are presented in this genome announcement. These seven genomes are from endophytes, plant pathogens and economically important fungal species. The genome sizes range from 26.6 Mb in the case of Leptographium lundbergii to 44 Mb for Chrysoporthe austroafricana. The availability of these genome data will provide opportunities to resolve longstanding questions regarding the taxonomy of species in these genera, and may contribute to our understanding of the lifestyles through comparative studies with closely related organisms.

Diplodia pinea (= Sphaeropsis sapinea) is an endophytic fungus and opportunistic canker pathogen of Pinus spp. The diversity of this fungus has been studied at broad geographic scales, but little is known regarding its population structure at smaller spatial scales such as within a single tree. This is despite the importance that diversity in a single tree might hold for understanding the biology of the fungus, especially the role of the endophytic or asymptomatic phase in disease development. Moreover there was not information regarding the distribution of the fungus within healthy trees and its persistence. The genotypic diversity of these isolates was investigated using microsatellite markers. Five polymorphic markers were developed and these were used together with eight previously developed markers and vegetative compatibility tests to study the genotypic diversity of D. pinea isolates. In this study, D. pinea was isolated for the first time in the well structured stems of healthy P. patula trees along with branches and cones. From a total of 44 isolates collected from five trees, 39 microsatellite haplotypes and 32 vegetative compatibility groups (VCG's) were identified. 2The results indicate high genotypic diversity of D. pinea within individual asymptomatic trees which will lead to disease outbreak when trees are physiologically stressed.