Wikimedia Commons / Dr. Weidong Chen Research Plant Pathologist Ascochyta blight (chickpea disease) fungus

Ascochyta blight caused by the fungal pathogen Didymella rabiei / Ascochyta rabiei / Mycosphaerella rabiei is a devastating disease of chickpea. Our research has been searching for management solutions of this disease by identifying resistance sources, testing effective fungicides and investigating pathogenic mechanisms. The pathogen produces toxin solanapyrones and the toxins were thought to be important to disease development. In one study of ours recently published in Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions, we generated mutants of Ascochyta that could not produce the toxin anymore. The mutants caused disease on chickpea just as well as the original isolate of the pathogen that was able to produce the toxins, demonstrating that the solanapyrone toxins are not required for pathogenicity. These toxins must play other important roles in the pathogen ecology.

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