Host Range Of Pathogen Research Articles

Genome resource announcement for emerging pathogen Bipolaris gigantea, isolated from Microstegium vimineum

Bipolaris gigantea is a pathogen of the invasive grass Microstegium vimineum and an emerging pathogen of other hosts such as hemp and barley, causing characteristic eyespot foliar lesions. The fungus is characterized by long pale hyaline conidia measuring about 300 to 350 μm. Previously, this pathogen was classified in the Drechslera genus, and recently reassigned as Bipolaris based on molecular identification. Here, we generated a high-quality draft genome sequence of B. gigantea isolate BGF using long and short read DNA sequencing. The assembled genome, 30.23 Mb in size with a BUSCO completeness score of 98.4%, exhibited synteny with the common grass pathogen B. sorokiniana isolate 10943. Average nucleotide identity (ANI) and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) analyses revealed high sequence identity with B. gigantea isolates from Cannabis sativa fields in Kentucky. This research provides a genomic resource that will contribute to future studies to understand the host range evolution and pathogenicity of this novel pathogen.

Allelic variations in the chpG effector gene within Clavibacter michiganensis populations determine pathogen host range.

Plant pathogenic bacteria often have a narrow host range, which can vary among different isolates within a population. Here, we investigated the host range of the tomato pathogen Clavibacter michiganensis (Cm). We determined the genome sequences of 40 tomato Cm isolates and screened them for pathogenicity on tomato and eggplant. Our screen revealed that out of the tested isolates, five were unable to cause disease on any of the hosts, 33 were exclusively pathogenic on tomato, and two were capable of infecting both tomato and eggplant. Through comparative genomic analyses, we identified that the five non-pathogenic isolates lacked the chp/tomA pathogenicity island, which has previously been associated with virulence in tomato. In addition, we found that the two eggplant-pathogenic isolates encode a unique allelic variant of the putative serine hydrolase chpG (chpGC), an effector that is recognized in eggplant. Introduction of chpGC into a chpG inactivation mutant in the eggplant-non-pathogenic strain Cm101, failed to complement the mutant, which retained its ability to cause disease in eggplant and failed to elicit hypersensitive response (HR). Conversely, introduction of the chpG variant from Cm101 into an eggplant pathogenic Cm isolate (C48), eliminated its pathogenicity on eggplant, and enabled C48 to elicit HR. Our study demonstrates that allelic variation in the chpG effector gene is a key determinant of host range plasticity within Cm populations.

Onion (Allium cepa L.) as a new host for 'Candidatus Arsenophonus phytopathogenicus' in Germany.

Onion (Allium cepa L.) is the most produced vegetable after tomato worldwide and is grown on about 15,000 ha in Germany. In Lampertheim, Hesse in southwest Germany (49°40'02.3"N, 8°26'00.0"E) bulbs of the cultivar 'Red Baron F1' were harvested in September 2023 in an apparently healthy state. Four months later some of the onions showed rotting symptoms, which could not be assigned to a known storage disease. At first, the bulbs became glassy, later they showed soft rot. They originated from a field located in a growing region severely affected by "Syndrome Basses Richesses" (SBR). 'Candidatus Arsenophonus phytopathogenicus' as well as 'Candidatus Phytoplasma solani' are associated with this disease in sugar beet (Gatineau et al. 2002). Moreover, 'Ca. A. phytopathogenicus' was recently reported in association of bacterial wilt and yellowing in potato (Behrmann et al. 2023). Both phloem-restricted bacteria are vectored by the polyphagous planthopper Pentastiridius leporinus (Therhaag et al. 2024), which is highly abundant in this region. To examine, if the unknown symptoms in onion might be related to the presence of these pathogens, DNA of 69 bulbs showing a different degree of softening were analyzed. The samples were tested for the presence of 'Ca. Phytoplasma solani' in a TaqMan assay (Behrmann et al. 2022). All showed negative results. To demonstrate the presence of 'Ca. A. phytopathogenicus', universal and genus-specific primers for the amplification of 16S rDNA and a real-time qPCR assay amplifying an hsp20 fragment were employed (Christensen et al. 2004, Zübert and Kube 2021). Two bulbs of the five positive samples were in an apparently healthy state, the other three showed light to moderate softening symptoms. The 16S rDNA fragments from two samples were sequenced on both strands and aligned. Both fragments were homologous. One fragment of 1474 bp fragment showing 100% homology to the 16S rDNA from SBR (accession no. AY057392) was submitted to GenBank (accession no. PP400342). Other taxa of 'Ca. Arsenophonus' showed 16S rDNA homologies of less than 99.3 %. To corroborate the finding onion samples were subjected to PCR reactions employing genus-specific primers for the conserved tufB, secY and manA gene, which had been derived from multiple alignments of 'Ca. A. spp' sequence submissions (Sela et al. 1989, Lee et al. 2010). The tufB, secY and manA primers amplified fragments of about 980 bp, 640 bp and 930 bp, respectively, from all previously positive samples. Samples which had been tested negative for 'Ca. P. phytopathogenicus' remained negative. Fragments from two accessions were sequenced and the sequences from both isolates were 100 % identical. A BLAST search of the partial tufB gene (acc. no. PP950434) showed 98.57 % sequence identity to a yet unnamed Arsenophonus endosymbiont (acc. no. OZ026540) and 91.85 to 91.83 % to 'Ca. A. nasoniae' and 'Ca. A. apicola', respectively. A similar result was obtained for the partial secY sequence (acc. no. PP950433). The manA sequence (acc. no. PP942231) was identical to a partial sequence of 'Ca. A. phytopathogenicus' strain HN (acc. no. OK335757) and 97.42 % to 'Ca. A. nasoniae and about 87 % to related Arsenophonus species. The finding of 'Ca. A. phytopathogenicus' in onion is novel and might indicate an expanding host range of vector and pathogen in the regional crop rotation. As a correlation between the pathogen and the soft rot symptom is unclear at present, further investigations are needed.

Epidemiological investigation of Trichomonas gallinae in beijing, China

Trichomonas gallinae is a globally distributed protozoan parasite that causes avian trichomoniasis, leading to significant morbidity and mortality in birds. The present study aims to investigate the prevalence, genetic diversity, and phylogenetic relationship of T. gallinae in various bird species in Beijing. A total of 413 oropharyngeal swab samples were collected from domestic pigeons, wild pigeons, and other bird species. The overall prevalence of T. gallinae infection was 32.0% (132/413). The infection was detected in domestic pigeons, wild pigeons, and red-necked turtledoves, but not in other wild birds. Molecular analysis identified two predominant genotypes, A and B, with genotype A found in wild pigeons and genotype B found in domestic pigeons. The present study provides valuable insights on the prevalence and genetic diversity of T. gallinae in Beijing. This can be useful for understanding its pathogen distribution and host range, and the development of strategies for the prevention and control of avian trichomoniasis.

Colletotrichum xishanense as a new etiological anthracnose agent on Fagopyrum gracilipes in Yunnan Province, China

Buckwheat (Fagopyrum spp.) is an important agricultural crop in some remote regions of China. In this study, two strains of Colletotrichum were isolated from brown and grey-white spots on the leaves of Fagopyrum gracilipes in Yunnan Province, China. Phylogenetic analyses inferred from combined ITS, act, chs-1, cal, gapdh, apmat, gs, and tub2 sequences revealed that these isolates are a new species, belonging to the C. gloeosporioides species complex and therefore we introduce as Colletotrichum xishanense. Pathogenicity tests indicated that C. xishanense infects not only herbaceous plant but also woody plant. Given the broader host range and stronger pathogenicity, it is time to focus on disease management and resistance breeding.

Machine-learning-guided Directed Evolution for AAV Capsid Engineering.

Target gene delivery is crucial to gene therapy. Adeno-associated virus (AAV) has emerged as a primary gene therapy vector due to its broad host range, long-term expression, and low pathogenicity. However, AAV vectors have some limitations, such as immunogenicity and insufficient targeting. Designing or modifying capsids is a potential method of improving the efficacy of gene delivery, but hindered by weak biological basis of AAV, complexity of the capsids, and limitations of current screening methods. Artificial intelligence (AI), especially machine learning (ML), has great potential to accelerate and improve the optimization of capsid properties as well as decrease their development time and manufacturing costs. This review introduces the traditional methods of designing AAV capsids and the general steps of building a sequence-function ML model, highlights the applications of ML in the development workflow, and summarizes its advantages and challenges.

Tick Activity, Host Range, and Tick-Borne Pathogen Prevalence in Mountain Habitats of the Western Carpathians, Poland.

In mountainous regions, diverse ecosystems provide a habitat for numerous species of organisms. In this study, we focused on ixodid ticks and their presence in the Western Carpathians, Poland. Our objectives were to investigate the impact of environmental factors on tick occurrence and activity, the prevalence of vectored pathogens, and tick hosts, and their role as reservoir organisms for tick-borne pathogens (TBPs). To this end, we collected ticks from the vegetation and from animals (Apodemus agrarius, A. flavicollis, Capreolus capreolus, Microtus spp., Myodes glareolus, Ovis aries). In addition, we collected blood samples from rodents. The collected material underwent molecular analysis, utilizing the high-throughput microfluidic real-time PCR technique, to detect the presence of TBPs. Our findings confirmed the occurrence of only two species of ixodid ticks in the study area: the dominant Ixodes ricinus, and Dermacentor reticulatus with very limited abundance. Temperature significantly influenced tick activity, and the number of I. ricinus nymphs varied with altitude. We also observed a circadian pattern of questing activity in I. ricinus ticks. The main hosts for juvenile tick stages were M. glareolus and A. agrarius, while adult stages were frequently found on C. capreolus. I. ricinus ticks collected from the vegetation were often infected with Rickettsia helvetica (up to 35.71%), Borrelia afzelii (up to 28.57%), and Ehrlichia spp. (up to 9.52%). In contrast, juvenile stages frequently carried Bartonella spp. (up to 10.00%), Mycoplasma spp. (up to 16.67%) and R. helvetica (up to 16.67%). Moreover, we detected genetic material of Mycoplasma spp. (up to 100.00%), Ehrlichia spp. (up to 35.71%), Bartonella spp. (up to 25.00%), and Borrelia spp. (up to 6.25%) in rodent blood samples. The obtained results indicate A. agrarius and M. glareolus as reservoir animals for TBPs in the studied region.

A computational and secretome analysis approach reveals exclusive and shared candidate type six secretion system substrates in Pectobacterium brasiliense 1692

The type 6 secretion system (T6SS) of Gram-negative bacteria (GNB) has implications for bacterial competition, virulence, and survival. For the broad host range pathogen, Pectobacterium brasiliense 1692, T6SS-mediated competition occurs in a tissue-specific manner. However, no other roles have been investigated. The aim of this study was to identify T6SS-associated proteins under virulence inducing conditions. We used Bastion tools to predict 1479 Pbr1692 secreted proteins. Sixteen percent of these overlap between type 1–4 secretion systems (T1SS-T4SS) and T6SS. Using label-free quantitative mass spectrometry of Pbr1692 T6SS active and T6SS inactive strains’ secretomes cultured in minimal media supplemented with host extract, 49 T6SS-associated proteins with varied gene ontology predicted functions were identified. We report 19 and 30 T6SS primary substrates and differentially secreted proteins, respectively, in T6SS mutants versus wild type strains. Of the total 49 T6SS-associated proteins presented in this study, 25 were also predicted using the BastionX platform as T6SS exclusive and shared substrates with T1SS-T4SS. This work provides a list of Pbr1692 T6SS secreted effector candidates. These include a potential antibacterial toxin HNH endonuclease and several predicted virulence proteins, including plant cell wall degrading enzymes. A preliminary basis for potential crosstalk between GNB secretion systems is also highlighted.

Comparative genomic and phenotypic analyses of pathogenic fungi Neoscytalidium dimidiatum and Bipolaris papendorfii isolated from human skin scraping.

Neoscytalidium dimidiatum and Bipolaris species are fungal plant pathogens that have been reported to cause human diseases. Recently, we have isolated numerous N. dimidiatum and Bipolaris species from the skin scrapings and nails of different patients. In this work, we have sequenced the genome of one strain of N. dimidiatum. The sequenced genome was compared to that of a previously reported Bipolaris papendorfii genome for a better understanding of their complex lifestyle and broad host-range pathogenicity. Both N. dimidiatum UM 880 (~ 43Mb) and B. papendorfii UM 226 (~ 33Mb) genomes include 11,015-12,320 putative coding DNA sequences, of which 0.51-2.49% are predicted transposable elements. Analysis of secondary metabolism gene clusters revealed several genes involved in melanin biosynthesis and iron uptake. The arsenal of CAZymes related to plants pathogenicity is comparable between the species, including genes involved in hemicellulose and pectin decomposition. Several important gene encoding keratinolytic peptidases were identified in N. dimidiatum and B. papendorfii, reflecting their potential pathogenic role in causing skin and nail infections. In this study, additional information on the metabolic features of these two species, such as nutritional profiling, pH tolerance, and osmotolerant, are revealed. The genomic characterization of N. dimidiatum and B. papendorfii provides the basis for the future functional studies to gain further insights as to what makes these fungi persist in plants and why they are pathogenic to humans.

A Review on Mango Gummosis Incited by Lasiodiplodia theobromae

Mango gummosis caused by Lasiodiplodia theobromae (Pat.) Griffon & Moube [synonym: Botryodiplodia theobromae] is a serious disease in India especially on popular varieties of mango during monsoon and post-monsoon periods. Severe infection with pathogen causes up to 30- 100 % yield losses in mango. Gummosis infected orchards shows abundant gum secretion from branches, stem and main trunk and also Vascular discoloration. In severe cases infected mango trees may die. The pathogen produces grey-brown to black colonies with dense aerial mycelia on the PDA medium. Pycnidia were separate or aggregated, dark brown, thick or thin-walled. Conidiophores were hyaline, cylindrical to sub-obpyriform, with oblong, straight and hyaline single celled conidia andinitially. Gradually the conidia became dark brown and produced one septum with longitudinal striations. The pathogen has wide host range so difficult to manage the disease at field level. There are sevral Management strategies for mango gummosis like resistant or tolerant varieties, effective fungicides, botanicals and effective biological control agents role in disease management. This review attempts to summarize the Knowledge on mango gummosis, symptomotology, pathogen host range, morphological and cultural characters of Lasiodiplodia and management of the disease.

Postharvest fruit rot of Bell pepper (Capsicum annuum L.): Pathogenicity and Host range of Alternaria alternata

Bell pepper is a fleshy vegetable cultivated in many countries. A severe fruit rot symptom was observed on green bell pepper in the local vegetable market in New Delhi, India. Fruit rot-associated fungal pathogen isolated on culture medium showed greyish-to-olive green mycelium with prolific conidial production. The pathogenicity test on green bell pepper indicated that inoculated fungus remained quiescent for ten days, triggering typical fruit rot upon the physiological maturation of bell pepper. Based on microscopic features and sequencing of genomic loci such as ITS, Alt a1, and RPB2, the pathogen identity was established as Alternaria alternata. Annotated nucleotides sequence of three genes were deposited and assigned NCBI GenBank accession numbers. Phylogenetic analysis using the taxonomic species of Alternaria strains revealed that the isolate A. alternata Cap_Aa clustered with reference strains of Alternaria alternata. A host range study of A. alternata Cap_Aa confirmed its pathogenicity on tomatoes and eggplant. Results presented in the present work provide knowledge on pathogen identity, host range, and genetic-relationship for developing suitable fruit rot management strategies and postharvest handling in the future.

Leguminous Seedborne Pathogens: Seed Health and Sustainable Crop Management.

Pulses have gained popularity over the past few decades due to their use as a source of protein in food and their favorable impact on soil fertility. Despite being essential to modern agriculture, these species face a number of challenges, such as agronomic crop management and threats from plant seed pathogens. This review's goal is to gather information on the distribution, symptomatology, biology, and host range of seedborne pathogens. Important diagnostic techniques are also discussed as a part of a successful process of seed health certification. Additionally, strategies for sustainable control are provided. Altogether, the data collected are suggested as basic criteria to set up a conscious laboratory approach.

The broad host range pathogen Sclerotinia sclerotiorum produces multiple effector proteins that induce host cell death intracellularly.

Sclerotinia sclerotiorum is a broad host range necrotrophic fungal pathogen, which causes disease on many economically important crop species. S. sclerotiorum has been shown to secrete small effector proteins to kill host cells and acquire nutrients. We set out to discover novel necrosis-inducing effectors and characterize their activity using transient expression in Nicotiana benthamiana leaves. Five intracellular necrosis-inducing effectors were identified with differing host subcellular localization patterns, which were named intracellular necrosis-inducing effector 1-5 (SsINE1-5). We show for the first time a broad host range pathogen effector, SsINE1, that uses an RxLR-like motif to enter host cells. Furthermore, we provide preliminary evidence that SsINE5 induces necrosis via an NLR protein. All five of the identified effectors are highly conserved in globally sourced S. sclerotiorum isolates. Taken together, these results advance our understanding of the virulence mechanisms employed by S. sclerotiorum and reveal potential avenues for enhancing genetic resistance to this damaging fungal pathogen.

Study of Host Range of pathogen causing Powdery Mildew of Cucurbits

Study of Host Range of pathogen causing Powdery Mildew of Cucurbits

Broad host-range pathogens as bioherbicides: managing nontarget plant disease risk.

Plant pathogens with a broad host range are commercially more attractive as microbial bioherbicides than strictly host-specific pathogens as a result of the wider market potential of a product capable of controlling multiple species. However, the perceived spatiotemporal disease risk to nontarget plants is a barrier to their adoption for weed control. We consider two approaches to managing this risk. First, we consider safety zones and withholding periods for bioherbicide treatment sites. These must ensure inoculum spreading from, or surviving at the site, exposes nontarget plants to no more inoculum than from natural sources. They can be determined using simple dispersal models. We show that a ratio of added:natural inoculum of 1.0 is biologically reasonable as an 'acceptable risk' and a sound basis for safety zones and withholding periods. These would be analogous to the 'conditions of use' for synthetic chemical herbicides aimed at minimizing collateral damage to susceptible plants from spray drift and persistent soil residues. Second, weed-specific isolates of broad host-range pathogens may avoid the need for safety zones and withholding periods. Such isolates have been found in many broad host-range pathogen species. Their utilization as bioherbicides may more easily meet the requirements of regulators. Mixtures of different weed-specific isolates of a pathogen could provide bioherbicides with commercially attractive spectrums of weed control activity. © 2023 The Authors. Pest Management Science published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

Tar Spot of Corn: A Diagnostic and Methods Guide

Tar spot of corn is an emerging plant disease in the continental United States and Canada caused by the fungal pathogen Phyllachora maydis Maubl. Tar spot has been known to occur in Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America since the early to mid-1900s. In 2015, it was reported for the first time in the continental United States. Since that time, tar spot has spread across corn-producing areas in the United States with epidemics as recent as 2021 resulting in significant yield losses. Although tar spot has been known to affect corn for over a century in the Americas, the biology of the pathogen, etiology, and epidemiology of the disease are not well understood. Additionally, symptoms and signs of tar spot resemble other foliar diseases and abiotic disorders of corn, which may lead to misdiagnosis. In this paper, we provide a brief description of current knowledge about tar spot of corn, including pathogen taxonomy, host range, symptoms and signs, specimen storage, pathogenicity testing, diagnostic protocols, and geographic distribution. This information will be useful to diagnosticians, researchers, and other professionals working with this disease.

A broadly conserved fungal alcohol oxidase (AOX) facilitates fungal invasion of plants.

Alcohol oxidases (AOXs) are ecologically important enzymes that facilitate a number of plant-fungal interactions. Within Ascomycota they are primarily associated with methylotrophy, as a peroxisomal AOX catalysing the conversion of methanol to formaldehyde in methylotrophic yeast. In this study we demonstrate that AOX orthologues are phylogenetically conserved proteins that are common in the genomes of nonmethylotrophic, plant-associating fungi. Additionally, AOX orthologues are highly expressed during infection in a range of diverse pathosystems. To study the role of AOX in plant colonization, AOX knockout mutants were generated in the broad host range pathogen Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. Disease assays in soybean showed that these mutants had a significant virulence defect as evidenced by markedly reduced stem lesions and mortality rates. Chemical genomics suggested that SsAOX may function as an aromatic AOX, and growth assays demonstrated that ΔSsAOX is incapable of properly utilizing plant extract as a nutrient source. Profiling of known aromatic alcohols pointed towards the monolignol coniferyl alcohol (CA) as a possible substrate for SsAOX. As CA and other monolignols are ubiquitous among land plants, the presence of highly conserved AOX orthologues throughout Ascomycota implies that this is a broadly conserved protein used by ascomycete fungi during plant colonization.

Analysis of plant cell death-inducing proteins of the necrotrophic fungal pathogens Botrytis squamosa and Botrytis elliptica.

Fungal plant pathogens secrete proteins that manipulate the host in order to facilitate colonization. Necrotrophs have evolved specialized proteins that actively induce plant cell death by co-opting the programmed cell death machinery of the host. Besides the broad host range pathogen Botrytis cinerea, most other species within the genus Botrytis are restricted to a single host species or a group of closely related hosts. Here, we focused on Botrytis squamosa and B. elliptica, host specific pathogens of onion (Allium cepa) and lily (Lilium spp.), respectively. Despite their occurrence on different hosts, the two fungal species are each other’s closest relatives. Therefore, we hypothesize that they share a considerable number of proteins to induce cell death on their respective hosts. In this study, we first confirmed the host-specificity of B. squamosa and B. elliptica. Then we sequenced and assembled high quality genomes. The alignment of these two genomes revealed a high level of synteny with few balanced structural chromosomal arrangements. To assess the cell death-inducing capacity of their secreted proteins, we produced culture filtrates of B. squamosa and B. elliptica that induced cell death responses upon infiltration in host leaves. Protein composition of the culture filtrate was analysed by mass spectrometry, and we identified orthologous proteins that were present in both samples. Subsequently, the expression of the corresponding genes during host infection was compared. RNAseq analysis showed that the majority of the orthogroups of the two sister species display similar expression patterns during infection of their respective host. The analysis of cell death-inducing proteins of B. squamosa and B. elliptica provides insights in the mechanisms used by these two Botrytis species to infect their respective hosts.

Game dynamics as a driver for pathogen spillover pulses

Understanding the underlying mechanisms for pathogen spillover is a main quest in epidemiology. Given the complexity of multi-host systems, several factors may play a relative role in spillover dynamics. A relatively less studied factor is the internal dynamics of pathogens that result from inter-strain competition. The competitive interactions among strains can cause deterministic changes in the population dynamics of pathogens. Such changes may affect the potential host-range of pathogens, influencing the probability of pathogen spillover. Here, our main goal is to show how an evolutionary game played by coexisting strains may induce pulses of pathogen spillover. To this end, we build a multi-host-multi-strain mean field model in which strains residing in a reservoir host have different capacities to explore an incidental host. We modelled inter-strain competition as a superinfection network and apply a game-theoretical analysis to it. The results indicate that game outcome depends on how reservoir hosts deal with the superinfection process (if superinfection is lethal, results in competitive exclusion or in coinfection). Our analysis suggests that game outcome can produce cycles in the strain composition that are cryptic in relation to the epidemiological dynamics of reservoirs (cycles in strain frequency composition cause small or no effect in the reservoir population). This suggests that relying solely on reservoir distribution and prevalence may subestimate the chance of pathogen spillover. Moreover, pulses of spillover can rely on the standing variation of pathogens, with no need for the emergence of novel mutations that increases pathogen host-range.

Virulence and Host Range of Fungi Associated With the Invasive Plant Ageratina adenophora.

To determine whether disease-mediated invasion of exotic plants can occur and whether this increases the risk of disease transmission in local ecosystems, it is necessary to characterize the species composition and host range of pathogens accumulated in invasive plants. In this study, we found that Didymellaceae, a family containing economically important plant fungal pathogens, is commonly associated with the invasive plant Ageratina adenophora. Accordingly, we characterized its phylogenetic position through multi-locus phylogenetic analysis, as well as its environmental distribution, virulence, and host range. The results indicated that 213 fungal collections were from 11 genera in Didymellaceae, ten of which are known, and one is potentially new. Didymella, Epicoccum, Remotididymella, and Mesophoma were the dominant genera, accounting for 93% of total isolates. The virulence and host ranges of these fungi were related to their phylogenetic relationship. Boeremia exigua, Epicoccum latusicollum, and E. sorghinum were found to be strongly virulent toward all tested native plants as well as toward A. adenophora; M. speciosa and M. ageratinae were weakly virulent toward native plants but strongly virulent toward A. adenophora, thus displaying a narrow host range. Co-evolution analysis showed no strong phylogenetical signal between Didymellaceae and host plants. Isolates S188 and Y122 (belonging to M. speciosa and M. ageratinae, respectively) showed strong virulence toward A. adenophora relative to native plants, highlighting their potential as biocontrol agents for A. adenophora invasion. This study provides new insights into the understanding of the long-term ecological consequences of disease transmission driven by plant invasion.