The genome of Parafenestella ontariensis was provided by Evgeny Ilyukhin. The JGI Fungal Annotation pipeline was used to predict genes and provide functional annotation.
The genus Parafenestella was introduced by Jaklitch & Voglmayr in 2018. The genus is included in the Cucurbitariaceae family (Pleosporales), which is characterized by ostiolate ascomata seated on basal stromatic structure, with cylindrical asci, and pigmented, muriform ascospores. There are 15 species epithets in Index Fungorum (2022), but only 14 species of Parafenestella are legitimate. The species of Parafenestella are mainly fungicolous (associated with perithecial ascomycetes), saprobic or necrotrophic on woody plants. This new species Parafenestella ontariensis collected from Acer negundo is described based on morphology characteristics and multi-gene phylogenetic analysis. P. ontariensis is close to P. alpina, but the species are different in spore size and culture characteristics. Comparative genomics analysis revealed that the lifestyle of P. ontariensis along with some other Cucurbitariaceae species could be both necrotrophic and hemi-biotrophic (multitrophic), with a capability to become pathogenic on a corresponding plant host under some circumstances (e.g., host shift).