Wheat crown rot caused by Fusarium spp. is a common disease worldwide.  Both Fusarium pseudograminearum and Fusarium graminearum infect wheat crown and produce mycotoxin leading to grain loss due to white head.  F. pseudograminearum (Fp) was reported in wheat from Henan Province of China a couple of years ago.  The wheat crown rot (CR) caused by this new pathogen is as an emerging severe disease of wheat, which has recently expanded to several provinces in China and is, therefore, under rapid investigation.  Colonization of wheat tissue by Fp is accomplished though the formation of a septated foot-shaped appressoria and generation of a penetration peg to break through the internal cells of leaf sheath.  The molecular mechanism by which Fp regulates the pathogenesis on wheat host is unclear.  Here, we report FpPDE1, a P-type ATPase-encoding predicted PDE1 orthologue gene of Magnaporthe oryzae, belonging to the DRS2 subfamily of aminophospholipid translocases.  The gene deletion of FpPDE1 with the split-marker approach did not obviously affect hyphae growth and conidiation, but led to an attenuated virulence on wheat base stem and root.  Our finding indicates that the putative aminophospholipid translocases is not essential for the infectious hyphae development in Fp.  

Wheat dwarf bunt, caused by Tilletia controversa Kühn (TCK), is an important quarantine wheat disease throughout the world. Based on published research results of the biology and the epidemiology of the disease, the main factors including temperature, humidity, snow cover, and their parameters relating to teliospore germination, infection and epidemics of TCK were determined. The geophytopathological models for the risk analysis of wheat dwarf bunt establishment were modified. Fifty-year meteorologic data from about 500 weather stations in China were used to calculate the probabilities of TCK establishment in different geographic sites with the models. The map that displays the establishment risk of TCK in winter wheat growing regions in China was generated by using geographical information system (GIS). The zones showing high, moderate, low, and very low, including no risk, of TCK establishment accounted for 27.33, 27.69, 38.12, and 6.86% of total winter wheat growing areas in China, respectively. These results will provide useful information to formulate quarantine regulations and wheat importation policy in China.