The ascomycete fungus Ophiostoma novo-ulmi is responsible for the pandemic of Dutch elm disease that has been ravaging Europe and North America for 50 years. We proceeded to annotate the genome of the O. novo-ulmi strain H327 that was sequenced in 2012. The 31.784-Mb nuclear genome (50.1% GC) is organized into 8 chromosomes containing a total of 8,640 protein-coding genes that we validated with RNA sequencing analysis. Approximately 53% of these genes have their closest match to Grosmannia clavigera kw1407, followed by 36% in other close Sordariomycetes, 5% in other Pezizomycotina, and surprisingly few (5%) orphans. A relatively small portion (∼3.4%) of the genome is occupied by repeat sequences; however, the mechanism of repeat-induced point mutation appears active in this genome. Approximately 76% of the proteins could be assigned functions using Gene Ontology analysis; we identified 311 carbohydrate-active enzymes, 48 cytochrome P450s, and 1,731 proteins potentially involved in pathogen–host interaction, along with 7 clusters of fungal secondary metabolites. Complementary mating-type locus sequencing, mating tests, and culturing in the presence of elm terpenes were conducted. Our analysis identified a specific genetic arsenal impacting the sexual and vegetative growth, phytopathogenicity, and signaling/plant–defense–degradation relationship between O. novo-ulmi and its elm host and insect vectors.

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As part of the DNA Sequencing Research Group of the Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities, we have tested the reproducibility of the Roche/454 GS-FLX Titanium System at five core facilities. Experience with the Roche/454 system ranged from <10 to >340 sequencing runs performed. All participating sites were supplied with an aliquot of a common DNA preparation and were requested to conduct sequencing at a common loading condition. The evaluation of sequencing yield and accuracy metrics was assessed at a single site. The study was conducted using a laboratory strain of the Dutch elm disease fungus Ophiostoma novo-ulmi strain H327, an ascomycete, vegetatively haploid fungus with an estimated genome size of 30-50 Mb. We show that the Titanium System is reproducible, with some variation detected in loading conditions, sequencing yield, and homopolymer length accuracy. We demonstrate that reads shorter than the theoretical minimum length are of lower overall quality and not simply truncated reads. The O. novo-ulmi H327 genome assembly is 31.8 Mb and is comprised of eight chromosome-length linear scaffolds, a circular mitochondrial conti of 66.4 kb, and a putative 4.2-kb linear plasmid. We estimate that the nuclear genome encodes 8613 protein coding genes, and the mitochondrion encodes 15 genes and 26 tRNAs.

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