mycology-2017-keynote

Volume 3, Issue 2 (Suppl)

Med Mycol Open Access

ISSN: 2471-8521

Mycology 2017

September 25-26, 2017

Page 24

Notes:

conference

series

.com

September 25-26, 2017 Chicago, USA

International Conference on

Mycology & Mushrooms

Biology, genetics, functional genomics, evolution, and epidemics caused by the stripe rust pathogen

uccinia striiformis

, an obligate biotrophic parasite, causes stripe rust of wheat, barley, and many grasses. Stripe rust of

wheat is important worldwide and can cause yield losses up to 4.5 million tones plus millions of dollars spent on chemical

control in the United States. The basidiomycete fungus has been recently demonstrated, under controlled conditions, to

have a heteroecious macrocyclic life cycle consisting of five spore stages with uredinial, telial, and basidial stages on cereals

and grasses, and pycnial and aecial stages on

Berberis

and

Mahonia

species. However, the role of alternate hosts for sexual

reproduction of the fungus under the natural conditions in the United States is limited due to the enclosed telia that are

covered by host epidermis, lack of dormancy, and degradation of teliospores in the winter, in addition to the dry weather

conditions when teliospores are able to germinate and the mismatching phenology of barberry plants. As a suicidal factor,

telial formation reduces the production of urediniospores, and thus reduces the aggressiveness and fitness of the pathogen.

Mapping populations have been developed through sexual reproduction on barberry and used to construct a consensus map

of the fungus and for mapping virulence loci using simple sequence repeat (SSR), single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), and

genotyping by sequencing (GBS) markers. Molecular markers also have been used to determine the genetic structure of the

pathogen population and evolutionary mechanisms. Mutation and somatic recombination have been determined as major

mechanisms for the pathogen to produce new races and genotypes, and host selection plays an important role in shifting the

population. As auxiliary hosts, grasses have been found to harbor more diverse populations. The secretomics of the stripe rust

pathogen is studied to identify virulence effectors and determine mechanisms of the pathogen-host interactions for developing

more efficient strategies for control of stripe rust.

Biography

Xianming Chen has his expertise in plant pathogenic fungi, especially the stripe rust pathogen of cereal crops. His research focuses on stripe rust of wheat and

barley. He and his colleagues have conducted basic and applied research to develop better methods for control of stripe rust. His research areas include plant

resistance (genetics, molecular mapping and cloning of resistance genes, and resistance mechanisms); biology, genome and functional genomics, races and

population structures of stripe rust pathogens; and epidemiology and control of diseases (developing resistant germplasm, disease monitoring and forecasting,

and integrated control).

xianming@wsu.edu

Xianming Chen

Agricultural Research Service, USA

Xianming Chen, Med Mycol Open Access, 3:2, 2017

DOI: 10.21767/2471-8521-C1-001