Morphological and molecular characterization of fungal pathogen, Magnaphorthe oryzae

Abstract

Rice is arguably the most crucial food crops supplying quarter of calories intake. Fungal pathogen, Magnaphorthe oryzae promotes blast disease unconditionally to gramineous host including rice species. This disease spurred an outbreaks and constant threat to cereal production. Global rice yield declining almost 10-30% including Malaysia. As Magnaphorthe oryzae and its host is model in disease plant study, the rice blast pathosystem has been the subject of intense interest to overcome the importance of the disease to world agriculture. Therefore, in this study, our prime objective was to isolate samples of Magnaphorthe oryzae from diseased leaf obtained from MARDI Seberang Perai, Penang, Malaysia. Molecular identification was performed by sequences analysis from internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of nuclear ribosomal RNA genes. Phylogenetic affiliation of the isolated samples were analyzed by comparing the ITS sequences with those deposited in the GenBank database. The sequence of the isolate demonstrated at least 99% nucleotide identity with the corresponding sequence in GenBank for Magnaphorthe oryzae. Morphological observed under microscope demonstrated that the structure of conidia followed similar characteristic as M. oryzae. Finding in this study provide useful information for breeding programs, epidemiology studies and improved disease management.

Molecular Identification and Phylogenetic Analysis of Fungi Contaminants Associated with In Vitro Cultured Banana Based on ITS Region Sequence

“…Conventional microbial contaminants identification is usually less sensitive, timeconsuming, and labour-intensive (Adeyemo and Onilude 2014;Hasan et al 2016). The molecular technique, particularly the application of polymerase chain reaction, is a viable alternative as the technique is precise, reliable, and reproducible (Hasan et al 2016).…”

“…Conventional microbial contaminants identification is usually less sensitive, timeconsuming, and labour-intensive (Adeyemo and Onilude 2014;Hasan et al 2016). The molecular technique, particularly the application of polymerase chain reaction, is a viable alternative as the technique is precise, reliable, and reproducible (Hasan et al 2016). Furthermore, fungal strains and species have been identified and genotyped using ribosomal-DNA (rDNA) and inter-transcribed spacer (ITS) regions (Lord et al 2002;Anderson et al 2003;Junmyoung 2010;Cobrado and Fernandez 2016).…”

“…Furthermore, fungal strains and species have been identified and genotyped using ribosomal-DNA (rDNA) and inter-transcribed spacer (ITS) regions (Lord et al 2002;Anderson et al 2003;Junmyoung 2010;Cobrado and Fernandez 2016). The ITS region is conserved, consisting of high copy numbers in the fungal genome with a high variation in sequences of closely related species (Hasan et al 2016). Given this, the International Sub-Commission of fungal barcoding proposed the ITS regions as the prime fungal bar code for species identification (Schoch et al 2012).…”

Morphological and Pathogenic Variability of Magnaporthe oryzae, the Incitant of Rice Blast

“…Appressorium developed from the conidia, adheres tightly to the plant surface which differentiates into germ tube and enter the epidermal cell of leaf using a thin penetration peg. Subsequently, it changes to infectious hyphae and grow inter and intracellularly, resulting in development of lesions (Hasan et al, 2016). The initial leaf infection shows brownish lesion and later develops diamond or spindle shaped symptom with grayish centre and dark brown margin.…”

“…Each disease lesion from the susceptible host can give rise to more than 20,000 conidia, serving as a source for secondary dispersal of the disease. Under favourable condition, the lesion coalesce leading to drying of the leaves (Hasan et al, 2016). The infection at the nodal region leads to weakening and breakage of nodes.…”