Scientific communication is facilitated by a data-driven, scientifically sound taxonomy that considers the end-user's needs and established successful practice. Previously (Geiser et al. 2013; Phytopathology 103:400-408. 2013), the Fusarium community voiced near unanimous support for a concept of Fusarium that represented a clade comprising all agriculturally and clinically important Fusarium species, including the F. solani Species Complex (FSSC). Subsequently, this concept was challenged by one research group (Lombard et al. 2015 Studies in Mycology 80: 189-245) who proposed dividing Fusarium into seven genera, including the FSSC as the genus Neocosmospora, with subsequent justification based on claims that the Geiser et al. (2013) concept of Fusarium is polyphyletic (Sandoval-Denis et al. 2018; Persoonia 41:109-129). Here we test this claim, and provide a phylogeny based on exonic nucleotide sequences of 19 orthologous protein-coding genes that strongly support the monophyly of Fusarium including the FSSC. We reassert the practical and scientific argument in support of a Fusarium that includes the FSSC and several other basal lineages, consistent with the longstanding use of this name among plant pathologists, medical mycologists, quarantine officials, regulatory agencies, students and researchers with a stake in its taxonomy. In recognition of this monophyly, 40 species recently described as Neocosmospora were recombined in Fusarium, and nine others were renamed Fusarium. Here the global Fusarium community voices strong support for the inclusion of the FSSC in Fusarium, as it remains the best scientific, nomenclatural and practical taxonomic option available.

4Plant-pathogenic fungi secrete effector proteins to facilitate infection. We describe extensive improvements to 1 5EffectorP, the first machine learning classifier for fungal effector prediction. EffectorP 2.0 is now trained on a larger 1 6 set of effectors and utilizes a different approach based on an ensemble of classifiers trained on different subsets of 1 7 negative data, offering different views on classification. EffectorP 2.0 achieves accuracy of 89%, compared to 82% for 1 8 EffectorP 1.0 and 59.8% for a small size classifier. Important features for effector prediction appear to be protein size, 1 9protein net charge as well as the amino acids serine and cysteine. EffectorP 2.0 decreases the number of predicted 2 0 effectors in secretomes of fungal plant symbionts and saprophytes by 40% when compared to EffectorP 1.0. However, 2 1 EffectorP 1.0 retains value and combining EffectorP 1.0 and 2.0 results in a stringent classifier with low false positive 2 2 rate of 9%. EffectorP 2.0 predicts significant enrichments of effectors in 12 out of 13 sets of infection-induced 2 3proteins from diverse fungal pathogens, whereas a small cysteine-rich classifier detects enrichment only in 7 out of 13. 2 4 EffectorP 2.0 will fast-track prioritization of high-confidence effector candidates for functional validation and aid in 2 5 improving our understanding of effector biology. EffectorP 2.0 is available at http://effectorp.csiro.au. 2 6

Transposable elements in eukaryotic organisms have historically been considered 'selfish', at best conferring indirect benefits to their host organisms. The Starships are a recently discovered feature in fungal genomes that are predicted to confer beneficial traits to their hosts and also have hallmarks of being transposable elements. Here, we provide experimental evidence that Starships are indeed autonomous transposons, using the model Paecilomyces variotii, and identify the HhpA 'Captain' tyrosine recombinase as essential for their mobilization into genomic sites with a specific target site consensus sequence. Furthermore, we identify multiple recent horizontal gene transfer of Starships, implying that they frequency jump between species. Fungal genomes have mechanisms to defend against mobile elements, which are frequently detrimental to the host. We discover that Starships are also vulnerable to repeat-induced point mutation defence, thereby having implications on the evolutionary stability of such elements.

15 Pathogens are able to deliver effector proteins into plant cells to enable infection. Some effectors have been