Evolution of the wheat blast fungus through functional losses in a host specificity determinant

TLDR

Wheat blast, a fungal pathogen first noted in the 1980s, has caused severe crop losses in Brazil and Bangladesh, and wheat varieties lacking a functional resistance gene are susceptible to strains that also affect oat and ryegrass. The study traced genetic shifts that enabled the pathogen’s emergence as a global threat to wheat. Later genetic changes in the pathogen increased its virulence on wheat. Inoue et al., Science, this issue p.

Abstract

Genetic analysis of disease emergence In the 1980s, wheat crops began to fall to the fungal pathogen that causes blast disease. First seen in Brazil, wheat blast last year caused devastating crop losses in Bangladesh. Inoue et al. tracked down the shifting genetics that have allowed the emergence of this potentially global threat to wheat crops (see the Perspective by Maekawa and Schulze-Lefert). Wheat varieties with a disabled resistance gene were susceptible to pathogen strains that affected oat and ryegrass crops. Subsequent genetic changes in the pathogen amped up the virulence in wheat. Science , this issue p. 80 ; see also p. 31