The Complete Genome Sequence of a UK Strain (UK99) of Fusarium culmorum

The ascomycete fungus Fusarium culmorum is one of two commonly found pathogenic Fusarium species identified on flowering wheat spikes in the UK which cause yield losses and mycotoxin contamination of grain. The other pathogen is Fusarium graminearum, for which a complete genomic reference sequence exists for the United States, strain PH-1, and of which a recent annotation update was released in 2016. We report the completion of the F. culmorum United Kingdom strain UK99 using a combination of PacBio and Illumina sequencing that will supersede the earlier fragmented and uncurated release of 2016. The genome size has increased from 39,005,997 bp to 39,552,590 (not including the mitochondria) with an increase of 546,593 bp and the fragmented contig bins of “Chromosome 5” and “Chromosome 6” have been placed within chromosomes 1-4 or the newly identified supernumerary fifth chromosome. The number of gaps have been reduced from 1,062,015 to 1 and repetitive telomeres assembled at both 5’ and 3’ of each chromosome. Future comparative analysis of these two complete Fusarium specie genomes will aid and support research to the study of the basic biology of Fusaria and mycotoxin reduction through identification of intervention targets.