Tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) is an open-pollinated, perennial, cool-season turf and forage grass species of great economic importance. The main problems of maintenance of tall fescue, and many other turfgrasses, are two severe fungal diseases: gray leaf spot caused by Magnaporthe grisea, and brown patch caused by Rhizoctonia solani. Three genes from various sources have been introd...

SUMMARY A fast-neutron mutagenized population of rice seedlings was screened with Magnaporthe grisea, the causal agent of rice blast disease, to identify mutants with alterations in the defence response. Three mutant lines, ebr1, ebr2 and ebr3 (enhanced blast resistance) were identified that display enhanced resistance to M. grisea. ebr1 and ebr3 also confer enhanced resistance to the bacterial...

The rice blast fungus Magnaporthe grisea infects its host by forming a specialized infection structure, the appressorium, on the plant leaf. The enormous turgor pressure generated within the appressorium drives the emerging penetration peg forcefully through the plant cuticle. Hitherto, the involvement of cutinase(s) in this process has remained unproven. We identified a specific M. grisea cuti...

MPG1, a pathogenicity gene of the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe grisea, is expressed during pathogenesis and in axenic culture during nitrogen or glucose limitation. We initiated a search for regulatory mutations that would impair nitrogen metabolism, MPG1 gene expression, and pathogenicity. First, we developed a pair of laboratory strains that were highly fertile and pathogenic toward barley. ...

The heterokaryotic and vegetative diploid phases of Magnaporthe grisea, a fungal pathogen of grasses, have been characterized. Prototrophic heterokaryons form when complementary auxotrophs are paired on minimal medium. Hyphal tip cells and conidia (vegetative spores) taken from these heterokaryons are auxotrophs with phenotypes identical to one or the other of the parents. M. grisea heterokaryo...