Comparative analysis of 15 chromosome-scale near T2T assemblies of Brazilian Fusarium graminearum isolates

Abstract

Fusarium graminearum is the causative agent of Fusarium head blight of wheat, yet genomic resources for Brazilian populations, where it is the dominant species, remain limited to a single reference genome. We report fifteen near telomere-to-telomere (T2T) assemblies of Brazilian F. graminearum isolates generated with Oxford Nanopore sequencing. Each genome was assembled into four nuclear chromosomes, with 118 of 120 telomeres resolved, BUSCO completeness of 99.199.3%, and 14,80214,894 predicted genes per isolate. The genomes are structurally conserved, showing no chromosome-scale rearrangements and uniform transposable element content. Orthology assignment placed 90.4% of genes in the core genome. This suggests that the large phenotypic variance in aggressiveness observed between isolates likely resides in regulatory differences and/or within the small and largely uncharacterised accessory fraction. Ultimately, these assemblies provide a high-resolution resource for the global FHB community and a foundation for comparative analysis of a previously underrepresented population.