Unravelling the elusive mating strategy of Dematophora necatrix: a combined genomic and physiological approach

Sexual reproduction in pathogenic ascomycetes is governed by the MAT1 locus, but canonical MAT1 genes appear absent across sequenced Xylariales, and D. necatrix mating strategy is unresolved. This study combined funannotate genome annotation, HMMER/InterProScan/phylogenetics/AlphaFold3 structural comparison, and controlled crossing of eight single-ascospore isolates with Illumina WGS. The dual approach yielded candidate mating-type genes via a novel methodology, genome-wide Xylariales annotations, and foundational insights into D. necatrix mating to aid pathogen control.