Journal article
Evolution of virulence in fungal plant pathogens: exploiting fungal genomics to control plant disease
Barbara J Howlett, Rohan GT Lowe, Stephen J Marcroft, Angela P van de Wouw
MYCOLOGIA | TAYLOR & FRANCIS INC | Published : 2015
DOI: 10.3852/14-317
Abstract
The propensity of a fungal pathogen to evolve virulence depends on features of its biology (e.g. mode of reproduction) and of its genome (e.g. amount of repetitive DNA). Populations of Leptosphaeria maculans, a pathogen of Brassica napus (canola), can evolve and overcome disease resistance bred into canola within three years of commercial release of a cultivar. Avirulence effector genes are key fungal genes that are complementary to resistance genes. In L. maculans these genes are embedded within inactivated transposable elements in genomic regions where they are readily mutated or deleted. The risk of resistance breakdown in the field can be minimised by monitoring disease severity of canol..
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Funding Acknowledgements
We thank the Grains Research and Development Corp. for financial support, and we are particularly grateful for the help of our national and international collaborators, as well as past and current laboratory members.