Fusarium wilt is the most destructive fungal disease in flax, limiting flax cultivation in all the main flax and linseed growing countries. The causative agent is seedborne and soilborne fungus F. oxysporum f. sp. lini. Here, we report, for the first time, genome assemblies of five highly pathogenic isolates of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lini, namely monoisolate 39 and strains F329, F324, F282, F287. In addition, syntenic analysis provided a powerful approach to distinguish between core and lineage-specific parts of the genome. These results lay a solid foundation for comparative genomics studies of plant fungal pathogens, evolution of pathogenicity, and virulence factors underlying the dynamics of host-pathogen interactions, thus eventually offering solutions to Fusarium disease control.
Keywords: Fusarium oxysporum; Fusarium wilt; flax; genome.