The draft genome of the lichen-forming fungus Lasallia hispanica (Frey) Sancho & A. Crespo

Abstract

Lasallia hispanica (Frey) Sancho & A. Crespo is one of three Lasallia species occurring in central-western Europe. It is an orophytic, photophilous Mediterranean endemic which is sympatric with the closely related, widely distributed, highly clonal sister taxon L. pustulata in the supra- and oro-Mediterranean belts. We sequenced the genome of L. hispanica from a multispore isolate. The total genome length is 41.2Mb, including 8488 gene models. We present the annotation of a variety of genes that are involved in protein secretion, mating processes and secondary metabolism, and we report transposable elements. Additionally, we compared the genome of L. hispanica to the closely related, yet ecologically distant, L. pustulata and found high synteny in gene content and order. The newly assembled and annotated L. hispanica genome represents a useful resource for future investigations into niche differentiation, speciation and microevolution in L. hispanica and other members of the genus.