Genoscope has sequenced the 30 Mb genome of the filamentous fungus Podospora anserina (reference strain S mat+) using a whole genome shotgun strategy. To achieve a coverage of 10X, 600 000 reads were produced at the end of the year 2003. 60% of these reads came from a library with a mean insert size of 3 kb, and 40% from a library with a mean insert size of 10 kb. In addition, the end sequences of 10 000 BAC clones (mean insert size 90 kb) were determined in order to facilitate the assembly step.

A first assembly at 6X confirmed the estimated size of the genome to be around 33-34 Mb. Moreover, it is in good agreement with the sequence of a 500 kb region bordering the centromere of chromosome V that was determined earlier (pilot project initiated in 2001).

Another goal of the Podospora project is to sequence more than 10 000 cDNA clones from two libraries with different insert sizes. These cDNA sequences will be directly aligned on the genomic sequence during the annotation step. Expression data will then be integrated with other annotation data (in particular those generated by the comparison between Podospora anserina and Neurospora crassa genomic sequences with the comparative genomics tool Exofish) using the GAZE software.