Morchella rufobrunnea strain:GMI-8 Genome sequencing

Morchella rufobrunnea is a filamentous ascomycete of both ecological and economic importance. It is notable as the only morel species reliably cultivated outside the Elata clade and is one of the few confirmed to be homothallic. Its ability to complete the life cycle in controlled environments makes it valuable for understanding development and reproduction in the genus.To support transcriptomic analyses of its life cycle, we generated a high-quality reference genome for the commercial isolate GMI-8. The genome was assembled using Oxford Nanopore long-read sequencing technology and polished with Illumina HiSeq short-read data to improve base-level accuracy. This genome was annotated using predicted protein evidence from other filamentous ascomycetes and RNA extracted from 6 different tissue types spanning the life cycle (sclerotium, mycelium, conidium, fundament, stipe, and hymenium tissues).It was used as the reference for investigating developmental gene expression across the life cycle (sclerotium, mycelium, conidium, fundament, stipe, and hymenium tissues). In addition to informing the regulation of morel development, this genome serves as a reference for future comparative, evolutionary, and functional genomic studies.