Puccinia coronata f. sp. avenae Genome sequencing and assembly

The basidiomycete fungus Puccinia coronata f. sp. avenae (Pca) is the causal agent of oat crown rust. This pathogen is highly prevalent in all oat growing regions throughout the world. Like other cereal rust fungi, Pca exhibits an obligate biotrophic lifestyle and remains as a dikaryotic organism during the vast majority of its life cycle. The life cycle of Pca involves asexual and sexual reproduction in two unrelated host species. The asexual phase of the life cycle occurs in cultivated (Avena sativa) and wild oat species, while the sexual phase can be completed in members of the Rhamnus genus such as R. cathartica (common buckthorn). Asexual and sexual populations of Pca display high virulence phenotypic variation; therefore understanding haplotype diversity is an important aspect in the characterization of the species. To create resources to investigate the biology of this pathogen, the genomes of two Pca isolates (12SD80 and 12NC29) were squenced, and raw sequence reads are given here. The assemblies are available through DOE-JGI MycoCosm.