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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Pathogen Interactions
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1484214
This article is part of the Research Topic Advancing Understanding of Blast Disease: Pathogen Genomics and Host-Pathogen Interactions View all articles

Molecular basis for loss of virulence in Magnaporthe Oryzae Strain AM16

Provisionally accepted
Jiahui Deng Jiahui Deng Ziya Zhang Ziya Zhang Xingli Wang Xingli Wang Yongni Cao Yongni Cao Mo Wang Mo Wang Huichuan Huang Huichuan Huang Qiong Luo Qiong Luo *
  • Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The rapid virulence variation of Magnaporthe oryzae (M. oryzae) to rice is a big challenge for rice blast control. Even though many studies have been done by scientists all over the world, the mechanism of virulence variation in M. oryzae remains elusive. AM16, an avirulent M. oryzae strain reported in our previous study, provides an excellent entry point to explore the mechanism of virulence variation in M. oryzae. In this study, we found that the Pmk1 and Mac1 had specific mutations in strain AM16. The AM16 strains overexpressing Pmk1Guy11 or (and) Mac1Guy11 allele from strain Guy11 displayed significantly increasing conidiation, functional appressorium formation, and restoring pathogenicity to rice. Moreover, we observed that the strains overexpressing Mac1Guy11 had stronger conidia forming capacity than that of the strains overexpressing Pmk1Guy11, while the appressorium formation rate of strains overexpressing Pmk1Guy11 was similar to that of strains overexpressing Pmk1Guy11-Mac1Guy11, much higher than that of the strains overexpressing Mac1Guy11. Taken together, our results reveal that the natural mutation of Pmk1 and Mac1 genes are important, but not the sole cause, for the loss of virulence in strain AM16. The functional difference between Pmk1 and Mac1 in the growth and development of M. oryzae was first discovered, providing new insight into the pathogenic mechanism of M. oryzae.

    Keywords: Magnaporthe oryzae, AM16 strain, Virulence variation, Pmk1, Mac1

    Received: 21 Aug 2024; Accepted: 21 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Deng, Zhang, Wang, Cao, Wang, Huang and Luo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Qiong Luo, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, China

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