Population dynamics and pathogenic races of rice blast fungus, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Magnaporthe oryzae</Emphasis> in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam

In a study of the population dynamics of Magnaporthe oryzae in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, 226 isolates were collected from various sites in December 2001, September and December 2004. The pathogenic races of isolates were determined using international differential rice varieties. Isolates with the same race number were not found, not even in the same field or on the same seedling, suggesting that the fungus in the Mekong Delta was dynamically changing. But focusing on the known major resistance genes in the Japanese differential varieties, some isolates in the area were found to be the same race. Phylogenetic analyses based on the transposable elements Pot2 and MGR586 in the genomes supported that the pathogenic races were critically variable in comparison with the genomic diversity. Isolates with MAT1-1 predominated in the Mekong Delta, but in some provinces those with MAT1-2 coexisted at low frequency with MAT1-1. However, no isolates produced perithecia and ascospores. Isolates in the Mekong Delta probably had hot spots in their genomes that are easily altered and associated with some avirulence genes.