The chromosome level whole genome sequence and the seconary matabolism gene cluster prediction of Fusarium meridionale, the pathogen causing maize ear rot.

Fusarium meridionale is one of the pathogens causing maize ear rot, it produce bioactive secondary metabolites may threaten humans food safty, however, the production mechanism of the secondary metabolites and their interaction with maize ear remains poorly understood. To facilitate related studies, we sequenced and assembled the genome of F. meridionale strain JX18-4. The size of F. meridionale JX18-4 genome is 37.11 Mbp, include four nuclear chromosome contigs that consists of 11920 coding genes and one mitochondrial contig. 95.64% gene synteny collinearity was found between the assembly and the reference genomes F. graminearum strain PH-1. Compared to the sequences of seconary matabolism gene clusters sequences reported previously, the stain JX18-4 was predicted potential producing 8 clusters, including nivalenol, zearalenone, aurofusarin, fusarielin, fusaristatin A, fusarin, fusarubin and butenolide. This study aims to reveal the molecular mechanism of secondary metabolites producing, and the genomic information of JX18-4 will provide resources for the study of biological control mechanisms and plant-microbe interactions.