Soybean (Glycine max) is highly susceptible to diseases caused by members of the Fusarium solani species complex (FSSC), a genetically diverse lineage of fungi responsible for foot rot, crown rot, and damping-off. To understand the molecular basis of pathogenicity during soybean seedling infection, we selected two highly aggressive strains, F. solani isolate Cherokee5 and F. falciforme isolate Progeny4 for genome sequencing, as these isolates prevented soybean seedling emergence. High-quality draft genome assemblies were generated for both isolates using long read Oxford Nanopore Technologies and short read Illumina sequencing, followed by hybrid assembly and polishing. The assemblies were 58.07 Mb and 62.65 Mb, with contig N50s of 3.74 Mb and 4.09 Mb. BUSCO completeness scores of the genomes were 97.1% and 95.3%, and repeat content accounted for 10.53% and 14.23%, respectively. Funannotate predicted 15,530 and 19,034 genes, including 1,295 and 1,511 secreted proteins, and 460 and 509 candidate effectors. Secondary metabolite analysis identified 41 and 44 biosynthetic gene clusters, and dbCAN3 detected 715 and 810 carbohydrate-active enzymes. These findings highlight the strong genomic potential of these two isolates to infect soybean seedlings. Together, these genomes provide a valuable tool for studying FSSC virulence strategies and interactions with soybean.
Parajuli et al. (Thu,) studied this question.