Genome of the endophytic fungus Fusarium sp. VM-40 isolated from Vinca minor. Fusarium sp. VM-40

The genus of Fusarium is well-known to comprise many plant pathogenic fungi that affect cereal crops worldwide, causing severe damage to agriculture and the economy. In this study, an endophytic fungus designated as Fusarium sp. VM-40 was isolated from the traditional European medicinal plant Vinca minor. Our morphological characterization and phylogenetic analysis reveal that Fusarium sp. VM-40 is closely related to Fusarium paeoniae, belonging to the F. tricinctum species complex (FTSC), the genomic architecture and secondary metabolite profile of which have not been investigated. Thus, we sequenced the whole genome of Fusarium sp. VM- 40 with the new Oxford Nanopore R10.4 flowcells. The assembled genome is 40 Mb in size with a GC content of 47.72%, 15 contigs (>= 50000 bp; N50~4.3 Mb), and 13,546 protein-coding genes, 691 of which are carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZymes)-encoding genes. We furthermore predicted a total of 56 biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) with antiSMASH, 25 of which showed similarity with known BGCs. In addition, we explored the potential for this fungus to produce secondary metabolites by untargeted metabolomics. Our analyses reveal that this fungus produces a rich source of antifungal (e.g. oxysporidinone), antibacterial (e.g. aurofusarin, enniatins), and anticancer (e.g. beta-elemene) metabolites. We also employed an epigenetic manipulation method to activate cryptic BGCs. Some previously unidentified compounds are observed in media spiked with sodium butyrate. Taken together, this study provides systematic research on the whole genome sequence, biosynthetic potential, and metabolome of the endophytic fungus Fusarium sp. VM-40.