Home • Macrophomina phaseolina MPI-SDFR-AT-0080 v1.0
Sclerotia of Macrophomina phaseolina.
Sclerotia of Macrophomina phaseolina.
Image Credit: Photchana Trakunsukharat, Department of Agriculture, Thailand
used under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia License
from http://www.padil.gov.au/thai-bio/pest/main/140461

This genome was sequenced as part of the 1000 Fungal Genomes Project - Deep Sequencing of Ecologically-relevant Dikarya, and more specifically as part of the Endophyte Genome Sequencing project, which seeks to sequence members of diverse lineages of endophytic species found in Arabidopsis, Populus and other plants to examine the functional diversity of fungi with a shared evolutionary history.

Macrophomina phaseolina is a soil and seed borne fungus that can infect more than 500 cultivated and wild plant species. It causes seedling blight, charcoal rot, dry root rot, wilt, leaf blight, stem blight, pre- and post-emergence damping-off and root/stem rot of different cultivated and wild plant species. The fungus can remain viable for more than 4 years in soil and crop residue as sclerotia. Under favorable conditions, hyphae germinate from the sclerotia and infect the roots and/or stem of the host plant by penetrating in the plant cell wall through mechanical pressure and/or chemical softening. The disease progresses from leaf yellowing to wilting and ultimately plant death.

The disease development is favoured with high temperature (30-35 °C) followed by moisture stress but in case of jute and corn it prefers the hot, moist and humid condition. It is difficult to control M. phaseolina due to its thick-walled resistant hyphal mat called sclerotia persistence in the soil and plant debris. Recently, there has been a worldwide report in increased incidence of the pathogen on diverse crop species which could reflect a wider appreciation of the importance of this disease to crop production in drought prone regions.

Researchers who wish to publish analyses using data from unpublished CSP genomes are respectfully required to contact the PI and JGI to avoid potential conflicts on data use and coordinate other publications with the CSP master paper(s).

 

Genome Reference(s)