Yulin JiaUSDA-ARS, Dale Bumpers National Rice Research CenterStuttgart, Arkansas Email: yulin.jia@ars.usda.gov
Host: Oryza sativa L. (rice)Disease name: Rice false smutPathogen name: Ustilaginoidea virens (Cooke) Takah.
Symptoms of false smut induced in the greenhouse on a susceptible rice breeding line. The sheaths of the rice plants were injected at the booting stage with spores of U. virens, and the picture was taken 3 weeks after injection.
Rice false smut was first reported in the United States in 1997 in Arkansas. Since 2008, farmers in the southern part of the country have observed this disease more often than in the past. Symptoms are visible on the panicle, and structures called spore balls or galls are produced that contaminate the grain and fields following harvest. The color of the galls changes from silvery white to orange and then to black. False smut has been reported to cause some economic losses in Asia, and occasionally it reduces rice yield and quality in the southern United States.
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