The generation of pangenomic variation in an asexual plant pathogen

Standing genetic variation is required for evolution through natural selection, and is determined in large part by an organism's reproductive strategy. While we have a reasonable understanding of how variation is generated through sex, it is less clear how clonal reproduction generates sufficient variation for adaptation to occur, especially in eukaryotes. Here, we sequenced 12 genomes of Macrophomina phaseolina, a globally distributed fungal pathogen that infects over 500 plant species despite having a presumed asexual lifecycle, in order to determine the mechanisms promoting its genetic diversity.