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Local adaptation; Approximate Bayesian Computation; Selective sweeps; Net blotch; Cercospora leaf spot
Abstract:
The Global Report on Food Crisis 2023, issued by the United Nations, states that humanity faces an acute food insecurity deepening over the past four years. In parallel, it is estimated that rapidly increasing human populations will reach 10 billion people by 2050. These factors call for urgent action for a more sustainable and, at the same time, more productive agriculture. Fungal pathogens cause devasting diseases in crop plants and immensely impact crop yields. While contemporary agricultural practices, such as fungicides and resistant varieties, are employed to control fungal disease emergence, catastrophic epidemics with devastating results still occur. Recent examples of such epidemics are the Asian soybean rust (Phakopsora pachyrhizi) and the wheat blast outbreaks Magnoporthe oryzae that occurred in South America and Asia.
Understanding the factors that drive the evolution and emergence of fungal plant pathogens can provide essential information for better epidemiological surveillance of these diseases. With the rapid increase in genomic global data of major plant pathogens, population genomics studies have deepened our understanding of the processes and mechanisms that give rise to catastrophic crop diseases.
