Evolutionary relationships were inferred among a worldwide sample of Ascochyta fungi from wild and cultivated legume hosts based on phylogenetic analyses of DNA sequences from the ribosomal internal transcribed spacer regions (ITS), as well as portions of three protein-coding genes: glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate-dehydrogenase (G3PD), translation elongation factor 1-alpha (EF) and chitin synthase 1...

Ascochyta blight is one of the major diseases of chickpea worldwide. The genetic resistance to ascochyta blight in chickpea is complex and governed by multiple QTLs. However, the molecular mechanism of quantitative disease resistance to ascochyta blight and the genes underlying these QTLs are still unknown. Most often disease resistance is determined by resistance (R) genes. The most predominan...

Ascochyta blight, caused by Ascochyta rabiei (Pass.) Lab. is a devastating disease of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) worldwide. Available genetic variation for Ascochyta blight resistance in genus Cicer has prompted interest in the development and use of resistant cultivars that can be sown in autumn and, to increase seed yield in chickpea. Understanding the mode of inheritance of resistance to ...

The response of pea (Pisum sativum) genotypes to ascochyta blight disease and the effect of disease severity on yield components were evaluated in a 4-year trial under field conditions. Peas were inoculated with Ascochyta pinodes, the anamorph of Mycosphaerella pinodes, or with Phoma pinodella separately and with a mixture of both species. Mean infection ratings of all inoculation treatments we...

Ascochyta blight, an infection caused by a complex of Ascochyta pinodes, Ascochyta pinodella, Ascochyta pisi, and/or Phoma koolunga, is a destructive disease in many field peas (Pisum sativum L.)-growing regions, and it causes significant losses in grain yield. To understand the composition of fungi associated with this disease in Zhejiang Province, China, a total of 65 single-pycnidiospore fun...

The anamorphic pycnidial fungus Ascochyta pisi is one member of a species complex that causes Ascochyta blight of pea, a potentially devastating disease. The teleomorphic state of this fungus was induced under laboratory conditions. Using morphological and molecular characters, we placed the teleomorph within the genus Didymella as D. pisi and describe a heterothallic mating system using a PCR-...

The historical and contemporary population genetic structure of the chickpea Ascochyta blight pathogen, Ascochyta rabiei (teleomorph: Didymella rabiei), was determined in the US Pacific Northwest (PNW) using 17 putative AFLP loci, four genetically characterized, sequence-tagged microsatellite loci (STMS) and the mating type locus (MAT). A single multilocus genotype of A. rabiei (MAT1-1) was det...

Lathyrus sativus (grass pea) is a temperate grain legume crop with a great potential for expansion in dry areas or zones that are becoming more drought-prone. It is also recognized as a potential source of resistance to several important diseases in legumes, such as ascochyta blight. Nevertheless, the lack of detailed genomic and/or transcriptomic information hampers further exploitation of gra...

Fungi colonizing senescent chickpea (Cicer arietinum) stems and postharvest debris from Pullman, WA, were enumerated and identified with the objective of finding species potentially useful for biological control of Didymella rabiei (conidial state 1⁄4 Ascochyta rabiei), causal agent of Ascochyta blight. In addition to D. rabiei, primary colonizers were, in order of decreasing abundance, Alterna...

Ascochyta blight of lentil is a prevalent disease in many lentil producing regions and can cause major yield and grain quality losses. The most environmentally acceptable and economically profitable method of control is to develop varieties with high levels of durable resistance. Genetic studies to date suggest that ascochyta blight resistance genes (R-gene) in lentil lines CDC Robin, ILL 7537,...