Genome Resource for Stemphylium beticola, One of the Causal Agents of Stemphylium Leaf Spot of Spinach (Spinacia oleracea)

Stemphylium leaf spot of spinach, caused by the seedborne fungi Stemphylium beticola and S. vesicarium, affects spinach grown for processing, fresh markets, and seed. Genomes of S. vesicarium, but not S. beticola, have been published. DNA was extracted from two isolates of S. beticola, St0030 and St1145, and used for Illumina sequencing to generate draft genome assemblies. This is the first reported genome sequence of S. beticola, which will provide a resource for population studies and development of molecular tools to differentiate S. beticola from other Stemphylium species infecting spinach leaves and seed. Additionally, these genomes will be useful for comparative genomic studies of other plant-pathogenic and non-pathogenic Stemphylium species. Copyright (c) 2023 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.