,Colletotrichum shisoi is a fungal plant pathogen of Perilla frutescens, a mint species cultivated in some Asian countries but considered invasive in the United States. This dataset contains a new, highly contiguous genome sequence generated from the North American C. shisoi isolate FDWSRU 21-072, which has been proposed for use as a biological control agent of invasive P. frutescens. Long-read PacBio sequencing produced a genome assembly of 48 contigs and 86.9 Mb. Structural and functional gene annotations were generated with the FunAnnotate v1.8.16 pipeline.,

,The United States Department of Agriculture – Invasive Plant Research Laboratory started limited production of a biological control mite, Floracarus perrepae, in 2008 for release against the invasive fern Lygodium microphyllum. Mass rearing of the biological control agent was initiated in 2014 as part of a mass rearing and broader release effort associated with the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. In late 2021, relatively simple adjustments made to plant and agent mass rearing protocols produced exponential increases in F. perrepae colony productivity. This increase is attributed to several key changes in colony maintenance that optimized the host-parasite population ratio. We developed a systematic method involving a weekly plant readiness criterion and a predefined sequence of stages to select plants for release, which ensures galls are correctly aged to maximize mite numbers.,,This project was partially funded by the USDA, through the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) (USDA agreement 58-6032-1-001) co-directed by the South Florida Water Management District and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and through Southwest Florida Water Management District (USDA agreement 58-6032-3-003).,

,Ramularia crupinae is a foliar and stem blighting fungal pathogen specific to the invasive rangeland weed common crupina (Crupina vulgaris). This fungal plant pathogen was recently approved by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) as the first biological control agent for the management of common crupina in the western United States. The genome assembly for R. crupinae 00-010 (https://mycocosm.jgi.doe.gov/Ramcr1/Ramcr1.info.html) contains 18 contigs totaling 37.9 Mb, and was annotated using the JGI fungal annotation pipeline. The information contained within this Ag Data Commons dataset provides an updated R. crupinae chromosome-level genome assembly. These data are freely available for research purposes.,Resources in this dataset:,

Background Several Trichoderma strains have been reported to be effective in controlling plant diseases, and the action of fungal hydrolytic enzymes has been considered as the main mechanism involved in the antagonistic process. However, although Trichoderma strains were found to impair development of Crinipellis perniciosa, the causal agent of cocoa plant witches' broom disease, no fungal strain is available for effective control of this disease. We have then undertaken a program of construction of hydrolytic enzyme-overproducing Trichoderma strains aiming improvement of the fungal antagonistic capacity. The protease of an indian Trichoderma isolate showing antagonistic activity against C. perniciosa was purified to homogeneity and characterized for its kinetic properties and action on the phytopathogen cell wall. Results A protease produced by the Trichoderma harzianum isolate 1051 was purified to homogeneity by precipitation with ammonium sulfate followed by hydrophobic chromatography. The molecular mass of this protease as determined by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis was about 18.8 kDa. Its N-terminal amino acid sequence shares no homology with any other protease. The purified enzyme substantially affected the cell wall of the phytopathogen C. perniciosa. Western-blotting analysis showed that the enzyme was present in the culture supernatant 24 h after the Trichoderma started to grow in casein-containing liquid medium. Conclusions The capacity of the Trichoderma harzianum protease to hydrolyze the cell wall of C. perniciosa indicates that this enzyme may be actually involved in the antagonistic process between the two fungi. This fact strongly suggest that hydrolytic enzyme over-producing transgenic fungi may show superior biocontrol capacity.

,In a 2023 survey evaluating conifers with Rosellinia infections, five Pestalotiopsis-like fungal endophytes were isolated from plant samples obtained from Maine, New Hampshire, and Ohio by The Mycology & Nematology Genetic Diversity & Biology Laboratory at the United States Department of Agriculture. The two data sets provided herein contain species-specific base pair substitutions for the partial translation elongation factor 1-alpha gene (TEF). In the alignments, the novel Pestalotiopsis fungi are compared to their most closely related species. The data set can be used as a diagnostic tool to differentiate between the closely related species.,DNA was extracted from fungal samples using the E.Z.N.A HP Plant & Fungal DNA Kit (OMEGA® Bio-Tek, Norcross, GA, USA) following manufacturer’s protocol. The TEF locus was amplified, and reactions were conducted in 25 μL volumes with 12.5 μL of KAPA2G Robust Hotstart® (Kapa Biosystems, Inc., Wilmington, MA, USA), 1.25 μL of the forward and reverse primers at 10 μM, 1-1.75 μL of DNA at 10-20 ng, and 8 μL of molecular grade H2O. Amplifications were performed following the protocol described by Maharachchikumbura et al. (2014) in a C1000 Touch PCR Thermal Cycler (Bio-Rad, Hercules, CA). PCR products were analyzed through capillary electrophoresis with the QIAxcel Advanced System instrument and the QIAxcel ScreenGel software (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany). PCR products were then purified using ExoSAP-IT Cleanup (Affymetrix, Santa Clara, CA) following the manufacturer’s protocol. The BigDye™ 3.1 Terminator Cycle sequencing kit was used to sequence amplicons bi-directionally with the Applied Biosystems SeqStudio Genetic Analyzer (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA).,Resources in this dataset:,,,

DNA sequences--already publicly available

DNA sequences--already publicly available

,Dollar spot is one of the most destructive globally distributed diseases of turfgrass. The identity of the fungus responsible for the disease has been the subject of debate for more than 75 years. These datasets provide the phylogenetic evidence from three nucleotide sequence markers (CaM, ITS and Mcm7) that underlie the establishment of the new fungal genus Clarireedia, which includes four species that cause turfgrass dollar spot disease: Clarireedia homoeocarpa, C. bennettii, C. jacksonii, and C. monteithiana. Datasets include the DNA sequence alignments for the CaM, ITS and Mcm7 markers for exemplar Clarireedia isolates, and the complete combined phylogenetic dataset and phylogenetic tree file.,,