Comparative genomics of Verticillium albo.atrum (V. nonalfalfae) strains infecting hops

To understand the mechanisms behind the development of the increased virulence of the lethal strains of Verticillium albo-atrum (V. nonalfalfae) and to detect virulence-associated factors, we sequenced six hop isolate genomes with different virulence and from three different geographical regions, using Illumina technology. For the reference strain, the Slovenian lethal strain was selected, showing the largest genome as confirmed by flow cytometry measurements. Four different insert size libraries (370 bp, 500-600 bp, 1000 bp) and 5000 bp) were sequenced. Another five strains were sequenced to a depth of 4.8 up to 11.5 M reads. For annotation of the transcribed part of the genome, 38.3 M RNA-seq reads were produced from one mild and one lethal transcriptome in three biological replicates. De-novo assembly of the reference genome and reference mapping of the other five genomes was performed using CLC software. The acquired V. albo-atrum genome data provide an important genomic resource for studying the virulence of non-alfalfa V. albo-atrum strains.