Multiple Horizontal Mini-chromosome Transfers Drive Genome Evolution of Clonal Blast Fungus Lineages.

ABSTRACT: Crop disease pandemics are often driven by asexually reproducing clonal lineages of plant pathogens that reproduce asexually. How these clonal pathogens continuously adapt to their hosts despite harboring limited genetic variation, and in absence of sexual recombination remains elusive. Here, we reveal multiple instances of horizontal chromosome transfer within pandemic clonal lineages of the blast fungus Magnaporthe (Syn. Pyricularia) oryzae. We identified a horizontally transferred 1.2Mb accessory mini-chromosome which is remarkably conserved between M. oryzae isolates from both the rice blast fungus lineage and the lineage infecting Indian goosegrass (Eleusine indica), a wild grass that often grows in the proximity of cultivated cereal crops. Furthermore, we show that this mini-chromoso

SUBMITTER: Barragan AC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11346369 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature