Bringing CORASON to Windows: Exploring fungal natural products through biosynthetic gene clusters

Biosynthetic gene clusters (BGC) are genomic regions that encode the production of specialized metabolites, including antibiotics, pigments, and toxins. While BGC are traditionally classified into broad categories such as NRPS, PKS, and terpene clusters, these classes often overlook finer relationships among gene clusters that produce structurally or functionally related compounds. Tools like BiG-SCAPE and BiG-SLiCE have been developed to address this issue by organizing BGC into gene cluster families (GCFs). CORASON complements these tools by enabling phylogenetic reconstruction of BGC, identifying conserved core genes, and visualizing GFCs as a continuum of variation in gene presence/absence and sequence identity. Although CORASON is incorporated in BiG-SCAPE visualization, it is also a standalone tool initially designed for bacterial genomes annotated via RAST and implemented through Docker in Linux environments. Here, we demonstrate CORASON's broader applicability using fungal GenBank files and its installation via Conda on Windows. As a case study, we examine metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) from Fusarium domesticum, a lesser-known member of the Fusarium genus, which is often present in food-associated microbiomes. Unlike its pathogenic relatives (F. oxysporum, F. graminearum), F. domesticum remains understudied, making it an interesting target for genomic mining. This work expands the accessibility of CORASON for fungal genome analysis and highlights its potential in uncovering novel biosynthetic potential in overlooked microbial taxa.