Structure of African Populations of <i>Pyricularia oryzae</i> from Rice

Rice blast, caused by the filamentous ascomycete Pyricularia oryzae, is one of most devastating diseases rice. Four genetic clusters were previously identified, and three have a large geographic distribution. Asia center diversity origin migrations to other continents, sexual reproduction persisted only in South China–Laos–North Thailand region, which was identified as putative all P. oryzae populations on Despite importance rice blast disease, little known about population structure pathogen Africa (including Madagascar). The present study intended describe African identify relationship between worldwide clusters. A set 2,057 strains (937 1,120 Madagascan strains) genotyped with 12 simple sequence repeat markers assess oryzae. Madagascar. All four are Africa. Populations from West Africa, East Madagascar highly differentiated. consistent limited dispersion some migration events neighboring countries. two mating types dominance Mat1.2, but no female-fertile strain detected, supporting absence this continent. This showed an unsuspected high level suggested several independent introductions. [Formula: see text] Copyright © 2021 Author(s). open access article distributed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license .