High-quality genome assemblies of four members of thePodospora anserinaspecies complex

Abstract

AbstractThe filamentous fungusPodospora anserinais a model organism used extensively in the study of molecular biology, senescence, prion biology, meiotic drive, mating-type chromosome evolution, and plant biomass degradation. It has recently been established thatP. anserinais a member of a complex of seven, closely related species. In addition toP. anserina, high-quality genomic resources are available for two of these taxa. Here we provide chromosome-level annotated assemblies of the four remaining species of the complex, as well as a comprehensive dataset of annotated assemblies from a total of 28Podosporagenomes. We find that all seven species have genomes of around 35 Mbp arranged in seven chromosomes that are mostly collinear and less than 2% divergent from each other at genic regions. We further attempt to resolve their phylogenetic relationships, finding significant levels of phylogenetic conflict as expected from a rapid and recent diversification.SignificanceHere we provide a dataset of 28 annotated genomes from theP. anserinaspecies complex, including chromosome-level assemblies of four species that lacked a reference genome. With this dataset in hand, biologists can take advantage of the molecular tools available forP. anserinato study evolutionary dynamics at the interphase between micro- and macroevolution, with particular emphasis on trait evolution, genome architecture, and speciation.