Comparative Analysis of the Korean Population of Magnaporthe oryzae by Multilocus Microsatellite Typing

Rice blast fungus, Magnaporthe oryzae, inflicts serious damage to global rice production. Due to high variability of this fungal pathogen, resistance of newly-released rice cultivars is easily broken down. To understand the population structure of M. oryzae, we analyzed the genetic diversity of the Korean population using multilocus microsatellite typing. Eleven microsatellite markers were applied to the population of 190 rice isolates which had been collected in Korea for two decades since the 1980’s. Average values of gene diversity and allele frequency were 0.412 and 6.5, respectively. Comparative analysis of the digitized allele information revealed that the Korean population exhibited a similar level of allele diversity to the integrated diversity of the world populations, suggesting a particularly high diversity of the Korean population. Therefore, these microsatellite markers and the comprehensive collection of field isolates will be useful genetic resources to identify the genetic diversity of M. oryzae population.