Ash trees (genus Fraxinus, family Oleaceae) are widespread throughout the Northern Hemisphere, but are being devastated in Europe by the fungus Hymenoscyphus fraxineus, causing ash dieback, and in North America by the herbivorous beetle Agrilus planipennis^1,2. Here we sequence the genome of a low-heterozygosity Fraxinus excelsior tree from Gloucestershire, UK, annotating 38,852 protein-coding genes of which 25% appear ash specific when compared with the genomes of ten other plant species. Analyses of paralogous genes suggest a whole-genome duplication shared with olive (Olea europaea, Oleaceae). We also re-sequence 37 F. excelsior trees from Europe, finding evidence for apparent long-term decline in effective population size. Using our reference sequence, we re-analyse association transcriptomic data³, yielding improved markers for reduced susceptibility to ash dieback. Surveys of these markers in British populations suggest that reduced susceptibility to ash dieback may be more widespread in Great Britain than in Denmark. We also present evidence that susceptibility of trees to H. fraxineus is associated with their iridoid glycoside levels. This rapid, integrated, multidisciplinary research response to an emerging health threat in a non-model organism opens the way for mitigation of the epidemic.

Summary: Plants exhibit an extraordinary range of genome sizes, varying by > 2000‐fold between the smallest and largest recorded values. In the absence of polyploidy, changes in the amount of repetitive DNA (transposable elements and tandem repeats) are primarily responsible for genome size differences between species. However, there is ongoing debate regarding the relative importance of amplification of repetitive DNA versus its deletion in governing genome size. Using data from 454 sequencing, we analysed the most repetitive fraction of some of the largest known genomes for diploid plant species, from members of Fritillaria. We revealed that genomic expansion has not resulted from the recent massive amplification of just a handful of repeat families, as shown in species with smaller genomes. Instead, the bulk of these immense genomes is composed of highly heterogeneous, relatively low‐abundance repeat‐derived DNA, supporting a scenario where amplified repeats continually accumulate due to infrequent DNA removal. Our results indicate that a lack of deletion and low turnover of repetitive DNA are major contributors to the evolution of extremely large genomes and show that their size cannot simply be accounted for by the activity of a small number of high‐abundance repeat families.

• Efforts are currently underway to establish a standard DNA barcode region for fungi; we tested the utility of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) of nuclear ribosomal DNA for DNA barcoding in lichen‐forming fungi by sampling diverse species across eight orders. • Amplification of the ITS region (ITS1–5.8S–ITS2) was conducted for 351 samples, encompassing 107, 55 and 28 species, genera and families, respectively, of lichenized fungi. We assessed the ability of the entire ITS vs the ITS2 alone to discriminate between species in a taxonomic dataset (members of the genus Usnea) and a floristic dataset. • In the floristic dataset, 96.3% of sequenced samples could be assigned to the correct species using ITS or ITS2; a barcode gap for ITS is present in 92.1% of species. Although fewer species have a barcode gap in the taxonomic dataset (73.3% with ITS and 68.8% with ITS2), up to 94.1% of samples were assigned to the correct species using BLAST. • While discrimination between the most closely related species will remain challenging, our results demonstrate the potential to identify a high percentage of specimens to the correct species, and the remainder to the correct genus, when using DNA barcoding in a floristic context.