Draft genomes of five Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. niveum strains isolated from infected watermelon from Texas with temporal and spatial differences

Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. niveum (FON) is a soil-borne fungal pathogen of watermelon, which has significantly impacted production worldwide. In the U.S., watermelon growers can experience 30-100% yield loss from this soil pathogen (Amaradasa et al. 2018; Egel et al. 2005; Zhang et al. 2020). In this study, we present five draft genome sequences of FON-race 2 isolates collected from 4 different counties within Texas spanning more than 23 years (Fig. 1). The estimated genome sizes of the de novo assembled genomes were; W2 - 49 Mb, COM - 48 Mb, HAR - 49 Mb, STORM - 49 Mb and PRU - 48 Mb. These sizes were in par with the previously sequenced FON races 0 and 2 from Texas ranged from 49-54 Mb (van Dam et al. 2016). Gene prediction program AUGUSTUS (Stanke et al. 2006) predicted 13,554 genes in W2, 13,658 genes in COM, 13,678 genes in HAR, 13, 821 genes in STORM and 13,347 genes in PRU. The information from our 5 genome drafts contributes to the southeast genomic dataset of FON for comparative genomic analysis. Furthermore, the sequences are beneficial in the understanding of changes within the FON genome over time.