Special Session: One Fungus, One Name: The Impact of Recent Changes in Fungal Nomenclature

101-S

Pyricularia or Magnaporthe? Names and genomes.
N. ZHANG (1), J. Luo (1), G. Cai (1), D. Bhattacharya (1)
(1) Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, U.S.A.

The family Magnaporthaceae contains devastating fungal cereal and grass pathogens, such as Pyricularia (Magnaporthe) oryzae (rice blast), Magnaporthiopsis (Magnaporthe) poae (summer patch), and Gaeumannomyces graminis (take-all). The type species of Magnaporthe is Magnaporthe salvinii (rice stem rot), which is not congeneric with Magnaporthe (Pyricularia) oryzae or grisea, based on phylogenetic analysis, morphology, and ecological characters. Therefore, a change of genus name is needed for the rice blast fungus. According to the new fungal nomenclature (Melbourne Code), the name for the rice blast fungus should be Pyricularia oryzae, while the name for the stem rot is Nakataea oryzae, because these are the older names. Another option is to conserve the genus Magnaporthe for the blast fungus. A poll is set at http://magnaporthe.blogspot.com/. A new genus, Magnaporthiopsis is proposed that includes Magnaporthiopsis (Magnaporthe) poae, Magnaporthiopsis (Magnaporthe) rhizophila and Magnaporthiopsis (Gaeumannomyces) incrustans based on phylogenetic analysis. In addition, we performed genome sequencing for 6 species in Magnaporthaceae: Magnaporthiopsis rhizophila, Magnaporthiopsis incrustans, Harpophora maydis, Nakataea oryzae (Magnaporthe salvinii), Ophioceras dolichostomum, and Pseudohalonectria lignicola, in order to conduct phylogenomic and comparative genome analyses for both pathogenic and non-pathogenic members of this family.