Pearl millet blast disease caused by Pyricularia pennisetigena in western arid Rajasthan, India

Pearl millet is an important cereal crop grown for grain and fodder in arid and semi-arid regions of India. Pyricularia grisea (teleomorph: Magnaporthe grisea) is known to cause devastating foliar blast disease leading to reduction in grain and fodder yields in pearl millet. Internal transcribed spacer sequencing of ribosomal DNA revealed that the foliar blast of pearl millet in western arid Rajasthan, India, is caused by Pyricularia pennisetigena. Multiple sequence alignment validated that the reference sequence of P. pennisetigena from USA, aligned well with that of our sequence of P. pennisetigena. Phylogram clearly delineated P. grisea and P. penniseticola as phylogenetically separate species of Pyricularia compared to P. pennisetigena. Therefore concerted efforts are needed to develop resistant varieties and hybrids in pearl millet against P. pennisetigena in future plant breeding programmes, particularly for western arid Rajasthan. In addition, isolate CZPMP-17, molecularly identified as Colletotrichum sublioneola isolated from P. glaucum causing foliar disease is shown to be a pathogen of pearl millet.