diff --git a/PanACoTA/utils.py b/PanACoTA/utils.py
index cb123954043eeb60896610589e3b690d93786cc7..69e51888e3eba396a58e507a8a7b1aba5f6034e0 100755
--- a/PanACoTA/utils.py
+++ b/PanACoTA/utils.py
@@ -1133,8 +1133,10 @@ def get_genome_contigs_and_rename(gembase_name, gpath, outfile):
                 # - write header ("<contig name> <size>") to replicon file
                 if prev_cont:
                     cont = "\t".join([prev_cont, str(cont_size)]) + "\n"
-                    sizes[prev_cont] = cont_size
-                    contigs[prev_cont] = prev_orig_name
+                    prevcont_nohead = "".join(prev_cont.split(">")[1:])
+                    prev_orig_name_nohead = "".join(prev_orig_name.split(">")[1:])
+                    sizes[prevcont_nohead] = cont_size
+                    contigs[prev_orig_name_nohead] = prevcont_nohead
                     grf.write(cont)
                     grf.write(seq)
                 prev_cont = ">" + gembase_name + "." + str(contig_num).zfill(4)
@@ -1148,8 +1150,10 @@ def get_genome_contigs_and_rename(gembase_name, gpath, outfile):
                 cont_size += len(line.strip())
         # Write last contig
         cont = "\t".join([prev_cont, str(cont_size)]) + "\n"
-        sizes[prev_cont] = cont_size
-        contigs[prev_cont] = prev_orig_name
+        prevcont_nohead = "".join(prev_cont.split(">")[1:])
+        prev_orig_name_nohead = "".join(prev_orig_name.split(">")[1:])
+        contigs[prev_orig_name_nohead] = prevcont_nohead
+        sizes[prevcont_nohead] = cont_size
         grf.write(cont)
         grf.write(seq)
     return contigs, sizes