Genome evolution of a pandemic lineage of the wheat blast pathogen

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The fungus Magnaporthe (Syn. Pyricularia) oryzae - the causal agent of blast disease of cereals - is among the most destructive plant pathogens to world agriculture and a major threat to the production of rice, wheat, and other cereal crops. Wheat blast was first identified in Brazil in 1985 and is now established throughout South America. In February 2016, wheat blast was first reported in the South Asian country of Bangladesh, where it caused yield losses of up to 90% and has since established itself as a major threat to food security in the region.The Bangladesh population appears to originate from the introduction of a single clonal lineage of the fungus from South America, and this lineage has since spread throughout the country. This project will determine the genetic variation of the Bangladesh clonal lineage of the wheat blast fungus based on field isolates collected since 2016 and will compare the genetic makeup of this population to its South American progenitors. The project will then develop and experimentally challenge hypotheses about the impact of the observed natural variation on the virulence potential of the pathogen and will combine computational analyses of genome sequences with mechanistic follow-up experiments.