Genetic Characterization of Cercospora Arachidicola and Cercosporidium Personatum

The project was started in May 2014 when the funding was received from the National Peanut Board. A total of six isolates of C.a. and C.p. were fingerprinted using 96 simple-sequence repeat (SSR) markers originally developed for Cercospora sojina; these markers have not yet been published. Combining data of fingerprinting and morphology two isolates were chosen for the sequencing project, these cultures are hosted at the NPRL, were prepared for long term storage and will be submitted to an international culture collection for their long term preservation. A research agreement was signed with Valdosta State University to obtain additional fungal cultures of C.a. and C.p and morphological assessment of cultures. We did seek collaboration from the BROAD Institute of Harvard and MIT, and Drs. J. Bochicchio, C. Nusbaum and C. Russ (from the group that participated in the Human Genome Project) to process our samples at their institute. The selected isolates were sequenced using HiSeq 2500 Sequencing System (Illumina), the current results are summarized in Table 1. We expect to obtain no less than 1 00x depth coverage for each genome, with >95% genome coverage. Sequencing results will be uploaded in NCBI GenBank database, after properly curated through bioinformatics. Sequence assembly is in progress and should be completed by approximately mid or end of February 2015. Genome annotation will be done as a separate project in the near future.