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Poster

Session: Session 1 Presenting Authors at Posters (Evens)

P-292 - Mechanisms of minichromosome-mediated genome dynamics in the cereal blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae

Tuesday, July 15, 2025
09:55 - 11:30  
Location: Confex Hall 3
Population Biology, Ecology & Genomics

    Presenting Author(s)

  • LG

    Lucia Gomez Gil

    Max Planck Institute for Biology
    Tübingen, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany

    • Author(s)

  • PG

    Paul Grablowitz

    Max-Planck Institute for Biology, Tübingen
    Tübingen, BW, GERMANY

  • MB

    Maruthi Naga Ramesh Bondada

    Max-Planck Institute for Biology
    Tübingen, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany

  • TL

    Thorsten Langner

    Group Leader
    Max Planck Institute for Biology
    Tübingen, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany




Plant pathogenic fungi pose a serious threat to the productivity of agricultural systems. The blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae (syn. Pyricularia oryzae) is a multi-host pathogen that infects both, cultivated and wild grass species, including important crops such as rice, wheat and barley. Despite reproducing predominantly asexually, clonal lineages of the blast fungus display remarkable genomic plasticity that enables them to adapt to new host genotypes. Genome compartmentalization into conserved core regions and highly dynamic accessory regions facilitates genomic plasticity and contributes to the rapid evolution of blast fungus lineages. M. oryzae carries highly variable mini-chromosomes that drive genetic variation through intra- and inter-chromosomal recombination, copy number variation and gene flow that together increase its adaptive potential. However, the molecular and regulatory mechanisms that facilitate structural genomic diversity is poorly understood. Combining population genomics, experimental evolution and molecular genetic techniques, we analyze how environmental conditions and developmental cues influence the emergence of structural genomic variants and the impact of chromosomal recombination events on local mutation rates. Deciphering the mechanisms generating genomic innovation is critical to understand how clonal pathogen lineages continually adapt to different environmental niches and could be used to guide surveillance of emerging pathogen variants.