Genome resource announcement of 3 phylotype I and 14 phylotype II Ralstonia solanacearum species complex isolates from South America

The Ralstonia solanacearum species complex is a group of gram-negative bacteria that cause lethal wilting on a broad range of plant species. Ralstonia pathogens were responsible for the Moko disease epidemic in plantains, bananas, and Heliconia sp. in Central and South America in the 1960s. To investigate the genomic diversity of Ralstonia strains isolated from Central and South America during this epidemic, we conducted Illumina whole-genome sequencing on 17 Ralstonia isolates. Our phylogenetic analysis showed that three of the isolates were phylotype I strains and 14 isolates were phylotype IIB strains. This genome announcement provides new genomic resources to investigate pathogen evolution, epidemiology, and virulence. [Formula: see text] The author(s) have dedicated the work to the public domain under the Creative Commons CC0 “No Rights Reserved” license by waiving all of his or her rights to the work worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law, 2023.