The maize anthracnose stalk rot and leaf blight diseases caused by the fungal pathogen Colletotrichum graminicola is emerging as an important threat to corn production worldwide. In this work, we provide an improved genome assembly of a C. graminicola strain (TZ-3) by using the PacBio Sequel II and Illumina high-throughput sequencing technologies. The genome of TZ-3 consists of 36 contigs with a length of 59.3 Mb. After correction and evaluation with the Illumina sequencing data and BUSCO, this genome showed a high assembly quality and integrity. Gene annotation of this genome predicted 11,911 protein-coding genes, among which 983 secreted protein-coding genes and 332 effector genes were predicted. Compared with previous genomes of C. graminicola strains, TZ-3 genome is superior in nearly all parameters. The genome assembly and annotation will enhance our knowledge of the genetic makeup of the pathogen and molecular mechanisms underlying its pathogenicity and will provide valuable insights into genome variation across different regions. [Formula: see text] Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
Keywords: Colletotrichum graminicola; anthracnose stalk rot and leaf blight; strain TZ-3.