A High-Quality Genome Resource for <i>Cercospora</i> cf. <i>flagellaris</i> , a Causal Agent of Cercospora Leaf Blight of Soybeans

A highly contiguous and complete reference genome of Cercospora cf. flagellaris, the causal agent of foliar disease on many plant hosts including Cercospora leaf blight of soybean, was assembled using a combination of PacBio and Illumina sequencing reads. The genome assembly is 33.72 Mb in length and consists of 14 nuclear scaffolds and one mitochondrial contig. Four scaffolds have telomeric repeats on both ends and represent fully assembled chromosomes, while nine scaffolds represent partially assembled chromosomes with telomeric repeats on one end. The assembly has an N50 of 2.90 Mb and an L50 of 5 scaffolds. Genome annotation identified 11,268 genes, of which 947 and 360 were predicted to encode secreted proteins and effectors, respectively. Additionally, 512 genes were predicted to encode carbohydrate-active enzymes and 60 biosynthetic gene clusters were annotated. Taken together, this annotated genome assembly will be a valuable resource for genomics, host-pathogen interactions, and population biology research in this economically important pathosystem.