Genome assisted molecular typing and pathotyping of rice blast pathogen, Magnaporthe oryzae, reveals a genetically homogenous population with high virulence diversity

Genome sequence-driven molecular typing tools have the potential to uncover the population biology and genetic diversity of rapidly evolving plant pathogens like Magnaporthe oryzae. Here, we report a new molecular typing technique -a digitally portable tool for population genetic analysis of M. oryzae to decipher the genetic diversity. Our genotyping tool exploiting allelic variations in housekeeping and virulence genes coupled with pathotyping revealed a prevalence of genetically homogenous populations within a single-field and plant niches such as leaf and panicle. The M. oryzae inciting leaf-blast and panicle-blast were confirmed to be genetically identical with no or minor nucleotide polymorphism in 17 genomic loci analyzed. Genetic loci such as Mlc1, Mpg1, Mps1, Slp1, Cal, Ef-Tu, Pfk, and Pgk were highly polymorphic as indicated by the haplotype-diversity, the number of polymorphic sites, and the number of mutations. The genetically homogenous single field population showed high virulence variability or diversity on monogenic rice differentials. The study indicated that the genetic similarity displayed by the isolates collected from a particular geographical location had no consequence on their virulence pattern on rice differentials carrying single/multiple resistance genes. The data on virulence diversity showed by the identical Sequence Types (STs) is indicative of no congruence between polymorphic virulence genesbased pathotyping and conserved housekeeping genes-based genotyping. (c) 2021 British Mycological Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Genome sequencing-based molecular typing tools have the potential to uncover genetic diversity of rapidly evolving plant pathogens like Magnaporthe oryzae. A new molecular typing technique was reported for genetic analysis of M. oryzae, revealing genetically homogenous populations within single fields and plant niches. Different genetic loci showed varying degrees of polymorphism, with no congruence found between polymorphic virulence genes and conserved housekeeping genes.