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Neodothiora populina is a black yeast-like fungus in the family of Dothioraceae. It causes an aggressive canker disease of trembling aspen that results in widespread mortality of aspen across the boreal forest of Interior Alaska. Here we report a high-quality draft genome including functional annotation of this emerging fungal pathogen based on Nanopore Technology longread sequences. Our initial genome assembly totaled 23,960,169 bp and contained 18 contigs and we identified 7,343 genes. This resource announcement provides new genomic data useful long-term to improve our understanding of forest health in Alaska.
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Determining the novel pathogen Neodothiora populina as the causal agent of the aspen running canker disease in Alaska
Neodothiora populina Crous, G.C. Adams & Winton was determined to be a new pathogen of trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides) growing in Alaska, based on completion of Koch’s Postulates in replicated forest and growth chamber inoculation trials. The pathogen is responsible for severe damage and widespread rapid mortality of sapling to mature aspen (≥ 80 years) in the boreal forests of interior Alaska, due to large diffuse annual (1–2 years) cankers. Isolation of the pathogen was challenging, and identification based on cultural characters was difficult. Fruiting bodies were not found on wild diseased trees, but erumpent pycnidia were found in bark overlying cankers on several stems inoculated with pure cultures.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1636476
- PAR ID:
- 10313993
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Canadian Journal of Plant Pathology
- ISSN:
- 0706-0661
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1080/07060661.2021.1952487
