The sclerotia of Villosiclava virens were found commonly in high altitude and the temperate regions, where the temperatures are relatively low in rice filling stage. To make sure if low temperature induce the sclerotial formation in V. virens, the inoculated rice panicles in laboratory and the diseased rice panicles cut from paddy fields were treated under different temperatures. The results showed that 3 days of night temperature at 15°C were enough to induce the sclerotial formation. The low temperature was much more effective for young balls with intact membranes. After appearance of chlamydospores on the ball surfaces, the sclerotium could not differentiate anymore. The sclerotia began to differentiate below the chlamydospore layer and gradually grew onto the ball surfaces. This suggests that low temperature in the early development stage of false smut balls is an important factor to induce the sclerotial differentiation, and rice cultivars with long growth periods are able to produce more sclerotium-bearing balls, which will produce mass of spores in paddy field in the coming year.

Rice false smut is caused by ascomycete Villosiclava virens, whose potential alternative hosts have been assumed previously. Here its potential alternative hosts were surveyed and identified from 2008 to 2013 in the main rice-growing regions in China. Two common weeds in paddy fields, Digitaria sanguinalis Scop. and Echinochloa crusgalli (L.) Beauv., were found to present the similar symptoms to smut diseases in a few individuals in 2012 and 2013 in Zhejiang and Sichuan provinces of China, respectively. After the examinations of the spore morphology, their infection and extension mode in hosts, pathogen cell wall components, and molecular identification, the two pathogens were identified to be the Basidiomycetes, Ustilago syntherismae and Ustilago trichophora, respectively. So far there has been no alternative host of V. virens to be identified in China. These suggest that the alternative hosts of V. virens, if they do exist, are not possible to play an important role in the pathogen life cycle and the disease epidemics.

Land conversion is considered an effective measure to ensure national food security in China, but little information is available on the quality of low productivity soils, in particular those in acid sulfate soil regions. In our study, acid sulfate paddy soils were divided into soils with high, medium and low levels based on local rice productivity, and 60 soil samples were collected for analysis. Twenty soil variables including physical, chemical and biochemical properties were determined. Those variables that were significantly different between the high, medium and low productivity soils were selected for principal component analysis, and microbial biomass carbon (MBC), total nitrogen (TN), available silicon (ASi), pH and available zinc (AZn) were retained in the minimum data set (MDS). After scoring the MDS variables, they were integrated to calculate a soil quality index (SQI), and the high, medium and low productivity paddy soils received mean SQI scores of 0.95, 0.83 and 0.60, respectively. Low productivity paddy soils showed worse soil quality, and a large discrepancy was observed between the low and high productivity paddy soils. Lower MBC, TN, ASi, pH and available K (AK) were considered as the primary limiting factors. Additionally, all the soil samples collected were rich in available P and AZn, but deficient in AK and ASi. The results suggest that soil AK and ASi deficiencies were the main limiting factors for all the studied acid sulfate paddy soil regions. The application of K and Si on a national basis and other sustainable management approaches are suggested to improve rice productivity, especially for low productivity paddy soils. Our results indicated that there is a large potential for increasing productivity and producing more cereals in acid sulfate paddy soil regions.