Publications by authors named "Joao P Ascari"

Article Synopsis
  • - Most plant pathogens usually infect specific hosts, but when these barriers weaken, new diseases can form quickly; the study focuses on the fungus Pyricularia oryzae, which has caused new plant diseases like wheat blast and grey leaf spot.
  • - The research reveals that the emergence of these diseases involved two important hybridization events over the last 70 years, leading to genetic changes that allowed the fungus to adapt to different plant hosts.
  • - Findings suggest that the adaptation to new hosts happened rapidly without many new mutations, relying instead on existing genetic variation that was reshuffled through mating, indicating that the fungus exploited already available traits to adapt quickly to new environments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Wheat blast, caused by the lineage (PoT), first emerged in Brazil and quickly spread to neighboring countries. Its recent appearance in Bangladesh and Zambia highlights a need to understand the disease's population biology and epidemiology so as to mitigate pandemic outbreaks. Current knowledge is mostly based on characterizations of Brazilian wheat blast isolates and comparison with isolates from non-wheat, endemic grasses.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Wheat blast, caused by (PoT), is an emerging threat to global wheat production. The current understanding of the population biology of the pathogen and epidemiology of the disease has been based on phylogenomic studies that compared the wheat blast pathogen with isolates collected from grasses that were invasive to Brazilian wheat fields. In this study, we performed a comprehensive sampling of blast lesions in wheat crops and endemic grasses found in and away from wheat fields in Minas Gerais.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Wheat blast, caused by lineage, is a major constraint to wheat production, mainly in the tropics of Brazil, where severe epidemics have been more frequent. We analyzed disease and wheat yield data from 42 uniform field trials conducted over 9 years (2012 to 2020) to assess whether the percent control and yield response were influenced by fungicide type, region (tropical or subtropical), and year. Six treatments were selected, all evaluated in at least 19 trials.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF