Draft genome sequence of the fungal pathogen Penicillium expansum (PPRI25879) isolated in South Africa

Penicillium expansum, a necrotrophic plant pathogen with a wide range of fruit hosts, is an important causal agent of blue mold rot. The fruit business suffers significant financial losses because of blue mold rot that occurs during fruit storage, transportation, and sale. The objective of this work was to generate a high-quality draft genome assembly of P. expansum, which will contribute to enhancing the management of blue mold, especially in stone and pome fruits, including grapes, by improving our understanding of the epidemiology of the pathogen and its interactions with the host.

Here, we describe the genome sequence of Penicillium expansum isolate PPRI25879, one of the most virulent strains isolated from grapes in South Africa. Sequencing reads from P. expansum produced approximately 3.5 Gb. The assembly generated a draft genome of size 32.1 Mb, consisting of 1648 contigs, with an N50 of 508 KB. Examination of the genome completeness with Benchmarking Universal Single-Copy Orthologs (BUSCO) showed the draft genome carries 97.9% of the 746 genes in the Eurotiomycetes_odb10 database. The draft genome sequence will allow improved genomic comparisons among the most important pathogens belonging to the Penicillium genus, with the aim of improving our knowledge of their plant-pathogen interactions, population biology, and control.