Integrated pest management programme for cereal blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae

Magnaporthe oryzae, the causal agent of blast diseases, is a destructive filamentous fungus that infects many plants including most economically important food crops, rice, wheat, pearl millet and finger millet. Magnaporthe oryzae has numerous pathotypes because of its high host-specificity in the field. The Oryza pathotype (MoO) of M. oryzae is the most devastating pathogen of rice, causing 10-30% yield loss in the world. On the other hand, the Triticum pathotype (MoT) causes blast disease in wheat, which is now a serious threat to wheat production in some South American countries, Bangladesh and Zambia. Because of low fungicide efficacy against the blast diseases and lack of availability of resistant varieties, control of rice and wheat blast diseases is difficult. Therefore, an integrated management programme should be adopted to control these two diseases in the field. Here, we introduced and summarized the classification, geographical distribution, host range, disease symptoms, biology and ecology, economic impact, and integrated pest management (IPM) programme of both rice and wheat blast diseases.

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This article introduces and summarizes the classification, geographical distribution, host range, disease symptoms, biology and ecology, economic impact, and integrated pest management (IPM) program of rice and wheat blast diseases.