Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) is a perennial C 4 grass native to the central prairies of North America. Recent development of switchgrass as a sustainable biofuel feedstock has raised interest in diseases that could impact switchgrass, especially when grown under monoculture conditions. Among the known diseases of switchgrass, rust diseases are the most widespread and could potentially impact ...

Until recently, the standard method for RNA interference (RNAi)-based reverse genetics in plant parasitic nematodes (PPNs) was based on the use of long double-stranded RNA (dsRNA). This increased the chance of off-target gene silencing through interactions between different short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) and non-cognate mRNA targets. In this work, we applied gene-specific knockdown of Mg-pat-1...

The sensitivity of 73 isolates of Mycosphaerella graminicola collected over the period 1993–2002 from wheat fields in South England was tested in vitro against the triazole fluquinconazole, the strobilurin azoxystrobin and to the imidazole prochloraz. Over the sampling period, sensitivity of the population to fluquinconazole and prochloraz decreased by factors of approximately 10 and 2, respect...

Cool-season grasses are intensively cultivated for seed production in western Oregon, where stem rust is the most damaging disease on several species, including perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne), annual ryegrass (L. multiflorum), and tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea). Stem rust also occurs on seed crops of orchard grass (Dactylis glomerata) and red fescue (F. rubra) in the region. The causal ...