Chromosome-level genome reference of Venturia effusa, causative agent of pecan scab

Abstract

Pecan scab, caused by Venturia effusa, is a devastating disease of pecan (Carya illinoinensis), which results in economic losses on susceptible cultivars throughout the southeastern U.S. To enhance our understanding of pathogenicity in V. effusa, we have generated a complete telomere-to-telomere genome reference of V. effusa isolate FRT5LL7-Albino. By combining Illumina MiSeq and Oxford Nanopore MinION data, we assembled a 45.2 Mb genome represented by 20 chromosomes and containing 10,820 genes, of which 7,619 have at least one functional annotation. The likely causative mutation of the albino phenotype was identified as a single base insertion and a resulting frameshift in the gene encoding the polyketide synthase ALM1. This genome represents the first full chromosome level assembly of any Venturia species.