A marine-derived fungal genome of Annulohypoxylon annulatoides reveals AT-rich isochores with putative regulatory functions

Abstract

Abstract Marine and coastal fungi experience intense environmental variability, yet the genomic features associated with tolerance to such conditions remain unclear. From 56 fungal isolates collected along the Lailai rocky shore in northern Taiwan, we selected the coastal isolate Annulohypoxylon annulatoides RYS0019 for phenotypic and genomic investigation because of its prevalence and distinctive stress-response profile. Compared with 5 bark-derived conspecific strains, RYS0019 showed distinct growth and recovery dynamics under salinity, temperature, and UV-associated stress treatments. We generated a high-quality 41.8 Mb de novo genome assembly with 11,523 predicted proteins and compared it with 15 other Hypoxylaceae genomes. Across Annulohypoxylon genomes, we identified variably sized and dispersed AT-rich isochores that are repeat-enriched and gene-poor. Despite variation in AT content, core gene content and Pfam domain profiles remained broadly conserved. Most AT-rich isochores were embedded within syntenically conserved regions and showed limited positional conservation across species, supporting recurrent, lineage-specific formation or expansion after species divergence. These regions also exhibit several sequence and structural features consistent with scaffold/matrix attachment regions, raising the possibility that they influence higher-order genome organization or context-dependent regulation. Together, our findings identify repeat-rich genome architecture as a dynamic feature of Annulohypoxylon genome evolution and provide a framework for testing how such regions may contribute to fungal environmental flexibility.