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Abstract:
Crown rust caused by
Puccinia coronata
f. sp.
avenae
(
Pca
) is the most destructive folia
r pathogen of cultivated oat,
Avena sativa
. Populations of
Pca
display very high genetic varia
bility as demonstrated by the nu
merous virulence profiles that can be captured during national
and international rust
surveys. Such levels of polymorphisms likely confer evolutionar
y advantages to the pathogen and drive adaptation to plant resi
stance genes deployed in
varieties. During the last two decades,
Pca
populations in the US have undergone drastic virulence shifts
yet the underlying genetic and molecular
mechanisms responsible for these changes are not understood. Ca
pitalizing on the recent release
of two genome references for
Pca
, a comparative
population genomics study of two
Pca
populations collected in 1990 and 2015, respectively, was laun
ched. Our goal is to determine the population
S1.105
structure and dynamics of
Pca
, as well as the evolutionary p
rocesses that drive virulence ch
anges over time, particularly in response to selective
pressures and occurrence of sexual reproduction. Overall, this
work contributes to the understanding of the biology of
Pca
and enables the development
of molecular markers associated with rust virulence.
