Tilletia indica: biology, variability, detection, genomics and future perspective

Abstract

India’s wheat production has reached 107.19 million tonnes during 2019–2020. Now country is in a position to export wheat to other countries. However, Karnal bunt disease is a major constraint in wheat export and causes huge monetary loss to wheat trade. The disease is caused by a typical basidiomycetes fungus Tilletia indica. It is an important quarantined fungus which affects wheat trade and causes economic loss under changing climatic scenarios. The pathogen was first reported from India then intercepted in other countries. Currently, 77 countries have restricted the import of wheat from the areas where the disease occurs. Recently, the disease has become more severe in the north-western plains zone of India. The pathogen is seed, soil and air-borne in nature. The pathogen has complex genetics, its genetic recombination or mating behaviour between two compatible allantoid sporidia just before infection. We illustrated briefly the complex biology of the pathogen, high genetic variability, detection, genomics, and pathogenesis-related genes in T. indica.