Daldinia eschscholtzii isolate:MFLUCC 19-0629 Genome sequencing and assembly. Daldinia eschscholtzii isolate:MFLUCC 19-0629

Endophytic fungi constitute a rich source of secondary metabolites that can be manipulated to produce desirable novel analogs for combating current agricultural challenges for crop production, especially controlling plant disease. The endophytic fungus Daldinia eschscholtzii MFLUCC 19-0629, was newly isolated from tropical ancient plants, Oncosperma sp., and displays a broad-spectrum of antifungal and antibacterial activities against several plant pathogens including Ralstonia solanacearum BWHP-03, Fusarium oxysporum MFLUCC BK-0012, Colletotrichum gloeosporioides MFLUCC CK-0032, Colletotrichum acutatum MFLUCC CC-0036, Stagonosporopsi cucurbitacearum MFLUCC BB-001, Corynespora cassiicola MFLUCC TSM-EB11 and Stemphylium spp. MFLUCC TSM-LB13. A high-quality genome sequence was obtained using Oxford nanopore technology for D. eschscholtzii MFLUCC 19-0629, resulting in a genome size of 37.56 Mb assembled over 11 contigs of significant size, likely to be at the chromosomal level. Bioinformatics analysis revealed that this strain is biosynthetically talented encoding for 65 predicted biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs). Only eight have BGCs that matched or demonstrated high similarity to previously characterized BGCs linked to the production of known secondary metabolites. The high number of predicted unknown BGCs makes this strain a promising source of novel natural products. The discovery that D. eschscholtzii MFLUCC 19-0629 has a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity against seven major plant pathogenic microorganisms relevant to crop production and its complete genome sequence carries immense importance in the advancement of novel microbial biocontrol agents (MBCAs). This also unveils the prospect of uncovering new and/or potential compounds that could be utilized for sustainable agriculture and pharmaceutical purposes.