The Magnaporthe grisea species complex and plant pathogenesis

TaxonomyKingdom Fungi; Phylum Ascomycota; Class Sordariomycetes; Order Magnaporthales; Family Pyriculariaceae (anamorph)/Magnaporthaceae (teleomorph); Genus Pyricularia (anamorph)/Magnaporthe (teleomorph); Species P. grisea (anamorph)/M. grisea (teleomorph). Host rangeVery broad at the species level, including rice, wheat, barley, millet and other species of the Poaceae (Gramineae). Disease symptomsCan be found on all parts of the plant, including leaves, leaf collars, necks, panicles, pedicels, seeds and even the roots. Initial symptoms are white to grey-green lesions or spots with darker borders, whereas older lesions are elliptical or spindle-shaped and whitish to grey with necrotic borders. Lesions may enlarge and coalesce to eventually destroy the entire leaf. Disease controlIncludes cultural strategies, genetic resistance and the application of chemical fungicides. Geographical distributionWidespread throughout the rice-growing regions of the globe and has been reported in more than 85 countries. Genomic structureDifferent isolates possess similar genomic sizes and overall genomic structures. For the laboratory strain 70-15: assembly size, 40.98 Mb; number of chromosomes, seven; number of predicted genes, 13 032; G+C composition, 51.6%; average gene contains 451.6 amino acids; mitochondrion genome size, 34.87 kb. Useful website.http://www.broadinstitute.org/annotation/genome/magnaporthe_comparative/MultiHome.html.