The status of net form net blotch of barley in Western Australia using high-resolution phenotyping and multi-omic analyses
Net blotch is a damaging barley disease caused by the necrotrophic fungal pathogen Pyrenophora teres. It occurs in two phenotypically distinct forms: net form net blotch caused by Pyrenophora teres f. teres (Ptt), and spot form net blotch caused by Pyrenophora teres f. maculata (Ptm). The recent emergence of fungicide resistant and increasingly virulent pathotypes and lack of resistant barley germplasm pose a serious threat on our barley production. To understand the mechanisms of pathogenicity and differences in virulence, and differential phenotypes, we have applied spatially resolved high-resolution microscopy and multi-omic techniques to barley leaves infected with Ptt. This included a combination of synchrotron and confocal microscopy, long-read genome assemblies of the pathogen strains, and gene expression using short and long read sequencing from targeted tissue sampling. I will present our recent findings in disentangling this complex interaction paving the way to better management of the disease.