Higher fitness and competitive advantage of Pyricularia oryzae Triticum lineage resistant to QoI fungicides.

Background: Quinone outside inhibitor (QoI) fungicides have not been effective in controlling the wheat blast disease [Pyricularia oryzae Triticum lineage (PoTl)] in Brazil. The first report of resistance of PoTl to QoIs in this country occurred in 2015. This study aimed to test hypotheses about the changes in fitness parameters and competitive advantage of the QoI-resistant (R) PoTl isolate group compared to the sensitive (S) isolate group.

Complete Chromosome-Scale Genome Sequence Resource for , the Causal Agent of Sourgrass Smut Disease.

Here, we present the first complete chromosome-level genome assembly of the smut fungus strain SPL10A, the causal agent of the sourgrass () smut disease. Combining Illumina paired-end and Nanopore long reads, we generated a final assembly composed of 23 chromosomes (22 nuclear and one mitochondrial) with 18,915,934 bp. Gene prediction accomplished using extrinsic evidence from the sugarcane smut fungus originated a total of 6,402 protein-encoding genes.

Wheat blast: from its origins in South America to its emergence as a global threat.

Wheat blast was first reported in Brazil in 1985. It spread rapidly across the wheat cropping areas of Brazil to become the most important biotic constraint on wheat production in the region. The alarming appearance of wheat blast in Bangladesh in 2016 greatly increased the urgency to understand this disease, including its causes and consequences.

Wheat Blast: Past, Present, and Future.

The devastating wheat blast disease first emerged in Brazil in 1985. The disease was restricted to South America until 2016, when a series of grain imports from Brazil led to a wheat blast outbreak in Bangladesh. Wheat blast is caused by Pyricularia graminis-tritici ( Pygt), a species genetically distinct from the Pyricularia oryzae species that causes rice blast.

Emergence of wheat blast in Bangladesh was caused by a South American lineage of Magnaporthe oryzae.

Background: In February 2016, a new fungal disease was spotted in wheat fields across eight districts in Bangladesh. The epidemic spread to an estimated 15,000 hectares, about 16 % of the cultivated wheat area in Bangladesh, with yield losses reaching up to 100 %. Within weeks of the onset of the epidemic, we performed transcriptome sequencing of symptomatic leaf samples collected directly from Bangladeshi fields.