Virulence structure of Magnaporthe oryzae populations from Fujian Province, China

Abstract

Rice blast, caused by Magnaporthe oryzae, is one of the most devastating diseases of rice worldwide. The aim of the present study was to elucidate the virulence structure of M. oryzae populations in Fujian Province, China, over the period 2006–2015. For this purpose, 456 M. oryzae isolates collected from diverse cultivars from eight rice cropping regions in Fujian were screened for the presence of 11 known avirulence genes: Avr-Pik, Avr-Pita1, Avr-Pita2, Avr-Pita3, PWL2, Avr1-CO39, ACE1, Avr-Piz-t, Avr-Pia, Avr-Pii and Avr-Pikm, with gene-specific molecular markers. The results showed that Avr-Pik and Avr-Pita3 occurred at the highest frequency (94.5% and 91.7%, respectively), while Avr1-CO39 and Avr-Pii were not detected. Further, the remaining avirulence genes occurred at frequencies ranging from 5.9% to 89.0%. Temporal population dynamics revealed that Avr-Pik was uniformly distributed in all 10 years, at frequencies of more than 87.5%. Spatial distribution analysis showed avirulence genes were present at different frequencies among the geographic regions. In addition, 24 rice monogenic lines of IRRI-Japan with known blast resistance genes were inoculated to assess the virulence of 60 isolates. The results revealed that the resistance gene Pik showed the broadest resistance spectrum to the isolates tested and therefore would be the most useful in rice blast resistance breeding. The resistance genes Pi-z5, Pi-1(1), Pi-kp, Pi-9(t), Pi-ta(1) and Pi-kh also were effective and would therefore also be of value to resistance breeding programmes. The present study provides information that should be useful for the development and deployment of rice blast resistant cultivars in Fujian Province.