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

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Islam, M. Tofazzal ; Croll, Daniel ; Gladieux, Pierre ; Soanes, Darren M. ; Persoons, Antoine ; Bhattacharjee, Pallab ; Hossain, Md. Shaid ; Gupta, Dipali Rani ; Rahman, Md. Mahbubur ; Mahboob, M. Golam ; Cook, Nicola ; Salam, Moin U. ; Surovy, Musrat Zahan ; Sancho, Vanessa Bueno ; Nunes Maciel, Joao Leodato ; NhaniJunior, Antonio ; Castroagudin, Vanina Lilian ; de Assis Reges, Juliana T. ; Ceresini, Paulo Cezar ; Ravel, Sebastien ; Kellner, Ronny ; Fournier, Elisabeth ; Tharreau, Didier ; Lebrun, Marc-Henri ; McDonald, Bruce A. ; Stitt, Timothy ; Swan, Daniel ; Talbot, Nicholas J. ; Saunders, Diane G. O. ; Win, Joe ; Kamoun, Sophien

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: BMC Biology; v. 14, OCT 3 2016.
• Web of Science Citations: 73

Abstract

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. Results: Reinoculation of seedlings with strains isolated from infected wheat grains showed wheat blast symptoms on leaves of wheat but not rice. Our phylogenomic and population genomic analyses revealed that the wheat blast outbreak in Bangladesh was most likely caused by a wheat-infecting South American lineage of the blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that genomic surveillance can be rapidly applied to monitor plant disease outbreaks and provide valuable information regarding the identity and origin of the infectious agent. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 13/10655-4 - Unraveling the local origin of the wheat blast pathogen (Magnaporthe oryzae) in Central-Southern Brazil and evidence for the emergence of resistance to Strobilurin fungicides in the pathogen populations
• Grantee: Paulo Cezar Ceresini
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• FAPESP's process: 15/10453-8 - The rise of Pyricularia tritici sp. Nov. as the wheat blast pathogen in Brazil: sympatric speciation inferred from multilocus gene phylogeny, pathogenicity spectra and avirulence genes evolution
• Grantee: Paulo Cezar Ceresini
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• FAPESP's process: 14/25904-2 - The rise of Pyricularia tritici sp. Nov. as the wheat blast pathogen in Brazil: sympatric speciation inferred from multilocus gene phylogeny, pathogenicity spectra and avirulence genes evolution
• Grantee: Vanina Lilián Castroagudin
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral