| Summary: | Rice blast is a worldwide fungal disease that poses a threat to food security. Fungicide treatment is one of the most effective methods to control rice blast disease. However, the emergence of fungicide tolerance hampers the control efforts against rice blast. ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters have been found to be crucial in multidrug tolerance in various phytopathogenic fungi. This study investigated the association between polymorphisms in 50 ABC transporters and pyraclostrobin sensitivity in 90 strains of rice blast fungus. As a result, we identified <i>MoABC-R1</i>, a gene associated with fungicide tolerance. <i>MoABC-R1</i> belongs to the ABCC-type transporter families. Deletion mutants of <i>MoABC-R1</i>, <i>abc-r1</i>, exhibited high sensitivity to pyraclostrobin at the concentration of 0.01 μg/mL. Furthermore, the pathogenicity of <i>abc-r1</i> was significantly diminished. These findings indicate that <i>MoABC-R1</i> not only plays a pivotal role in fungicide tolerance but also regulates the pathogenicity of rice blast. Interestingly, the combination of <i>MoABC-R1</i> deletion with fungicide treatment resulted in a three-fold increase in control efficiency against rice blast. This discovery highlights <i>MoABC-R1</i> as a potential target gene for the management of rice blast.
|
|---|