A Highly Contiguous Genome Assembly of Arthrinium puccinoides

Abstract

The phylogenetic relationship of the Arthrinium genus has changed throughout the years. For many years, the Arthrinium genus included the Apiospora genus as well. New evidence has now showed that these two genera in fact are phylogenetically different and belong to two different clades. Here we present the first genome draft within the Arthrinium genus. This genome was sequenced using the MinION platform from Oxford Nanopore Technologies and the assembly was contiguous. The assembly comprises of ten contigs totaling 39.8 Mb with an N50 length of 7.9. In the assembly, 11,602 genes were predicted whereof 10,784 were functionally annotated. A total of 37 rRNA genes were observed in the assembly and repeat elements spanning 7.39% of the genome were found. A total of 99 secondary metabolite gene clusters were predicted, showing a high potential of novel secondary metabolites. This genome sequence will not only be useful for further investigation of the Arthrinium clade, but also for discovery of novel secondary metabolite compounds that could be of high interest for the food, agricultural, or pharmaceutical industry.

Comparative genomic study of the Penicillium genus elucidates a diverse pangenome and 15 lateral gene transfer events

“…In contrast, whole genome sequencing opens the door to a more comprehensive view of the biosynthetic potential of the Penicillia. Advancements in long read sequencing technologies have provided opportunities to create affordable high-quality genome drafts (Petersen et al 2022 ; Sørensen et al 2014 ). Such high-quality genomes create higher comparative power when assessing the divergence of genes, pathways, and evolutionary development, which in turn allows more precise identification of species, orthologous genes, and gene clusters, and thus a better foundation for genome mining for novel compounds and enzymes, as well as a deeper understanding of evolutionary relationship.…”

Four New Endophytic Apiospora Species Isolated from Three Dicranopteris Species in Guizhou, China

“…This delineation was confirmed and supported by subsequent studies [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. Evidence of genome draft was employed within the fungal group Arthrinium/Apiospora for the first time, which also supported them into two separate genera [21]. Currently, 157 epithets under the genus Apiospora are listed in Index Fungorum (September 2023), while 116 epithets are listed in Species Fungorum.…”

“…For example, several species, including Apiospora arundinis, A. aurea, A. phaeosperma, A. sacchari, A. saccharicola, A. serenensis, A. terminalis, and Apiospora/Arthrinium spp., can produce 3-nitropropionic acid, which is associated with the food safety problem of poisonings or even deaths [70][71][72]. The study results of the genome sequence provided by Sørensen et al [21] revealed that the Apiospora-Arthrinium group holds a high number of secondary metabolite gene clusters, which has attracted more attention to the compounds of this group [21,69]. In the current research context, we newly obtained seven endophytic taxa from the medicinal ferns of Dicranopteris rich in bioactive compounds and identified them as four new species (A. aseptata, A. dematiacea, A. dicranopteridis, and A. globosa) in the genus Apiospora, a fungal group that is currently attracting attention.…”

New studies on Apiospora (Amphisphaeriales, Apiosporaceae): epitypification of Sphaeria apiospora, proposal of Ap. marianiae sp. nov. and description of the asexual morph of Ap. sichuanensis

“…montagnei), and fixed the phylogenetic limits of Apiospora, proposing the necessary combinations at species rank. Later authors followed this approach (Crous et al 2021;Tian et al 2021), and genomic analyses seem to confirm their taxonomic decision (Sørensen et al 2022). A third group of species formerly placed within Arthrinium, including Ar.…”