TY - JOUR T1 - Wheat blast disease caused by <em>Pyricularia graminis-tritici</em> sp. nov JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/051151 SP - 051151 AU - V.L. Castroagudín AU - S.I. Moreira AU - D.A.S. Pereira AU - S.S. Moreira AU - P.C. Brunner AU - J.L.N. Maciel AU - P.W. Crous AU - B.A. McDonald AU - E. Alves AU - P.C. Ceresini Y1 - 2016/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/04/30/051151.abstract N2 - Pyricularia oryzae is a species complex that causes blast disease on more than 50 species of poaceous plants. Pyricularia oryzae has a worldwide distribution as a rice (Oryza) pathogen and in the last century emerged as an important wheat (Triticum) pathogen in southern Brazil. Presently, P. oryzae pathotype Oryza is considered the rice blast pathogen, whereas P. oryzae pathotype Triticum is the wheat blast pathogen. In this study we investigated whether the Oryza and Triticum pathotypes of P. oryzae were distinct at the species level. We also describe a new Pyricularia species causing blast on several other poaceous hosts in Brazil, including wheat. We conducted phylogenetic analyses using 10 housekeeping loci from an extensive sample (N = 128) of sympatric populations of P. oryzae adapted to rice, wheat and other poaceous hosts found in or near wheat fields. The Bayesian phylogenetic analysis grouped the isolates into two major monophyletic clusters (I and II) with high Bayesian probabilities (P = 0.99). Cluster I contained isolates obtained from wheat as well as other Poaceae hosts (P = 0.98). Cluster II was divided into three host-associated clades (Clades 1, 2 and 3; P &gt; 0.75). Clade 1 contained isolates obtained from wheat and other poaceous hosts, Clade 2 contained exclusively wheat-derived isolates, and Clade 3 comprised isolates associated only with rice. Our interpretation was that cluster I and cluster II correspond to two distinct species: Pyricularia graminis-tritici sp. nov. (Pgt), newly described in this study, and Pyricularia oryzae (Po). The host-associated clades found in P. oryzae Cluster II correspond to P. oryzae pathotype Triticum (PoT; Clades 1 and 2), and P. oryzae pathotype Oryza (PoO; Clade 3). No morphological or cultural differences were observed among these species, but a distinctive pathogenicity spectrum was observed. Pgt and PoT were pathogenic and highly aggressive on Triticum aestivum (wheat), Hordeum vulgare (barley), Urochloa brizantha (signal grass) and Avena sativa (oats). PoO was highly virulent on the original rice host (Oryza sativa), and also on wheat, barley, and oats, but not on signal grass. We concluded that blast disease on wheat and its associated Poaceae hosts in Brazil is caused by multiple Pyricularia species: the newly described Pyricularia graminis-tritici sp. nov., and the known P. oryzae pathotypes Triticum and Oryza. To our knowledge, P. graminis-tritici sp. nov. is already widely distributed in Brazil and To our knowledge, P. graminis-tritici sp. nov. is already widely distributed in Brazil and encompasses the clade containing the strains characterized in the wheat blast outbreak recently reported in Bangladesh. This indicates that P. graminis-tritici sp. nov. represents a serious threat to wheat cultivation globally. ER -