Draft genome sequence data of Colletotrichum siamense isolated from Camellia japonica in the United States

<i>Colletotrichum siamense</i> Prihastuti, L. Cai & K.D. Hyde is an economically important fungal pathogen that causes damage to diverse horticultural and agronomic crops including fruits, vegetables, and ornamentals. While its prevalence on, and damage to ornamental crops has been reported in many tropical and subtropical countries, to date it was not documented on ornamentals in the United States. Here, we report the isolation of <i>C. siamense</i> from <i>Camellia japonica</i> L. in the United States and the first genome sequence of this pathogen. <i>C. siamense</i> isolates GCC05 and GCC08 were obtained from <i>C. japonica</i> plants in George County, Mississippi. Whole genome sequencing of GCC05 and GCC08 was performed as paired-end reads of 150 bp using NovaSeqXPlus. Clean reads were <i>de novo</i> assembled and were also mapped to <i>C. siamense</i> reference genome sequence, Cg363, and genome-wide variants were analyzed. Sequencing data were submitted to NCBI GenBank BioProject PRJNA1273064, and accession numbers SAMN48929844 [1] and SAMN49025292 [2] were assigned to GCC05 and GCC08, respectively. The data reported here will enable the development of diagnostics towards monitoring the occurrence and spread of <i>C. siamense</i> in the United States and will contribute to developing disease management strategies. Comparative genomics and phylogenetic analyses using these genome sequences will also aid in deriving insights that add to the knowledge of diversity and pathogenicity of <i>C. siamense</i> and the <i>Colletotrichum gloeosporioides</i> species complex (CGSC).