Increased virulence of Puccinia coronata f. sp.avenae populations through allele frequency changes at multiple putative Avr loci.

ABSTRACT: Pathogen populations are expected to evolve virulence traits in response to resistance deployed in agricultural settings. However, few temporal datasets have been available to characterize this process at the population level. Here, we examined two temporally separated populations of Puccinia coronata f. sp. avenae (Pca), which causes crown rust disease in oat (Avena sativa) sampled from 1990 to 2015. We show that a substantial increase in virulence occurred from 1990 to 2015 and this was associated with a genetic differentiation between populations detected by genome-wide sequencing. We found strong evidence for genetic recombination in these populations, showing the importance of the alternate host in generating genotypic variation through sexual reproduction. However, asexual expansion

SUBMITTER: Miller ME 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7793281 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature