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Several Neopestalotiopsis spp. have been reported to affect strawberry worldwide. Here, we sequenced two isolates of Neopestalotiopsis 19-02 (highly virulent) and 13-481 (moderately virulent) recovered from commercial strawberry fields in Florida and generated chromosome-scale assemblies using the Oxford Nanopore Technologies and Illumina platforms. Each genome assembly for 19-02 and 13-481 contained putative telomere sequences at the 5′ and 3′ ends. By analyzing the collinearity of the two newly assembled genomes and verifying the conserved telomere sequence at the end of each chromosome, we confirmed that the genome of Neopestalotiopsis spp. consists of seven basic chromosomes. Benchmarking Universal Single-Copy Orthologs (BUSCO) analysis showed 98.5% of conserved core genes for both genome assemblies, 19-02 and 13-481. Phylogenetic analysis with internal transcribed spacer, beta-tubulin, and translation elongation factor regions obtained from the assemblies 19-02 and 13-481 demonstrated that the highly virulent isolate 19-02 is phylogenetically distinct from moderate virulent N. rosae 13-481. Comparative genome analysis of the high-quality reference genome assemblies provided in this study will facilitate the identification of genomic regions responsible for the different virulence of the Neopestalotiopsis pathogen to strawberry. [Figure: see text] The author(s) have dedicated the work to the public domain under the Creative Commons CC0 “No Rights Reserved” license by waiving all of his or her rights to the work worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law, 2024.

Bacterial leaf blight, one of the most destructive diseases of rice, is prevalent in the major rice-growing regions of the world. Bacterial leaf blight is caused by Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) and greatly affects the quantity and quality of the rice crop. We sequenced the whole genome of Xoo isolated from a Basmati rice-growing region of Pakistan using long-read Oxford Nanopore sequencing technology. About 637 MB of data was retrieved, corresponding to 133× genome sequencing coverage. The final assembly yields a circular chromosome of 4,930,682 bp. The complete genome of the Xoo isolate from Pakistan will enhance sequence resources for global comparison of Xoo diversity across the region. [Figure: see text] Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.

Haplaxius crudus Van Duzee is a pest of various economically important palms due to its ability to transmit lethal yellowing, a fatal phytoplasma infection. It is also the putative vector of lethal bronzing in Florida, another lethal phytoplasma disease causing significant economic losses. To date, no mitochondrial genomes for species in the family Cixiidae are sequenced. In this study, the complete mitochondrial genome of H. crudus was sequenced, assembled, and annotated from PacBio Sequel II long sequencing reads using the University of Florida’s HiPerGator. The mitogenome of H. crudus is 15,848 bp long and encodes 37 mitochondrial genes (including 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 tRNAs, and 2 rRNAs) in addition to a putative noncoding internal control region. The nucleotide composition of H. crudus is asymmetric with a bias toward A/T (44.8 %A, 13.4 %C, 8.5 %G, and 33.3 %T). Protein-coding genes (PCGs) possess the standard invertebrate mitochondrial start codons with few exceptions while the gene content and order of the H. crudus mitogenome is highly similar to most completely sequenced insect mitochondrial genomes. Phylogenetic analysis based on the entire mitogenome shows H. crudus resolving closely to Delphacidae, the accepted sister taxon of Cixiidae. These data provide a useful resource for developing novel primer sets that could aid in either phylogenetic studies or population genetic studies. As more full mitogenomes become available in the future for other planthopper species, more robust phylogenies can be constructed, giving more accurate perspectives on the evolutionary relationships within this fascinating and economically important group of insects.