Identification, Culture Characteristics and Whole-Genome Analysis of Pestalotiopsis neglecta Causing Black Spot Blight of Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica .

Black spot needle blight is a serious conifer disease of var. occurring in Northeast China, which is usually caused by the plant pathogenic fungus . From the diseased pine needles collected in Honghuaerji, the strain YJ-3 was isolated and identified as the phytopathogen, and its culture characteristics were studied. Then, we generated a highly contiguous 48.36-Mbp genome assembly (N50 = 6.62 Mbp) of the strain YJ-3 by combining the PacBio RS II Single Molecule Real Time (SMRT) and Illumina HiSeq X Ten sequencing platforms. The results showed that a total of 13,667 protein-coding genes were predicted and annotated using multiple bioinformatics databases. The genome assembly and annotation resource reported here will be useful for the study of fungal infection mechanisms and pathogen-host interaction.