Abstract
Bacterial soft rot is an important disease in onion caused by Pectobacterium carotovorum, a Gram-negative bacterium belonging to the Pectobacteriaceae family. The soft rot disease may occur during the preharvest (mature bulbs) or postharvest (transit, storage) stage. We collected symptomatic onion plants from the field and isolated bacteria from the foliage and bulbs. We extracted genomic DNA from the bacterial strain 21TX0081 isolated from onion foliage, conducted a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based on 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA)-specific primers, and classified the strain to genus Pectobacterium. To ascertain the species, genome features, and novelty of the strain, we conducted whole genome sequencing and computed average nucleotide identity (ANI) and digital DNA-DNA hybridization (dDDH) values. We also annotated the genome of P. carotovorum strain 21TX0081 using Rapid Annotation using Subsystem Technology (RAST) server. The raw, untrimmed forward and reverse sequence reads of 16S rRNA, and whole genome annotation features have been deposited at Mendeley Data. The datasets generated from consensus 16S rRNA and whole genome sequence have been deposited in National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) repository. They will be useful for future research on comparative genomics and developing tools for disease management in onion.