Secondary hosts as potential inoculum source for Rice Blast pathogen in Argentina

Abstract

Rice Blast is the main disease of this crop in Argentina. It occurs sporadically at different rice growing areas, mainly in Santa Fe and Chaco provinces. However, when environmental conditions are favorable to disease development, Rice Blast can cause damages in other rice growing areas, such as Entre Ríos or Corrientes provinces. Inoculum survival and pathogen population specificity are important issues to understand Rice Blast epidemiology. Objective is to evaluate the virulence of “Pyricularia grass isolates” collected from Argentine rice growing area, on rice differential lines with resistant genes (Pi1, Pi2, Pi33 and Pita) and commercial varieties.