Phakopsora pachyrhizi is responsible for the Asian Soybean Rust (ASR) disease and is the major pathogen of soybean. It causes severe losses in almost all soybean-growing areas. Nearly 300 billion tons of the legume are produced annually, and used primarily as feedstock and for bioenergy production. Yield damage caused by ASR can be dramatic (reported cases from 60 percent in the US, to total losses in tropical regions). Today, the use of fungicides is the main way to control this disease. So far, breeding approaches to identify durable and race-independent disease resistant germplasm were unsuccessful. In order to sustainably protect soybean against rust disease in the future, a range of different strategies can be foreseen like chemical or biological product application or plant modification by breeding or trait approaches. In all cases, a better knowledge of the biology of P. pachyrhizi could clearly foster disease management programs.
JGI will host the genome sequences of three P. pachyrhizi isolates (K8108, MG2006 & PPUFV02) of which one is assembled at chromosome level (PPUFV02). The three genomes will be repeat masked and annotated in the same way facilitating direct comparisons and inferences for the community. This portal summarizes annotations of isolate MG2006 while all three assemblies are available from the download page under JGI Data Utilization Policy.
