Virulence diversity of Phakopsora pachyrhizi in Mexico
Asian soybean rust (ASR), caused by the pathogen Phakopsora pachyrhizi, is the main disease of soybean in Mexico and worldwide, threatening its production. Knowledge about the virulence of Mexican rust populations (MRPs) is crucial in order to develop or introduce soybean cultivars with resistance to this disease. This study investigated the geographic variation on the virulence of 19 MRPs collected in two states of Mexico: Tamaulipas and Chiapas, using a set of 12 differential soybean varieties. The inoculation of MRPs showed that there was no large difference in virulence to differentials carrying Rpp4 or Rpp5 between MRPs from the two states. However, a contrasting phenotype was observed on Rpp1, Rpp1-b, Rpp2, and Rpp3. In the comparative analysis of virulence profiles with 157 and 20 P. pachyrhizi samples from South America and Asia, respectively, the MRPs from Chiapas form an isolated cluster, including the Tamaulipas state. The MRPs from Tamaulipas clustered with South American samples because of common characteristics, such as virulence to Rpp1 and avirulence to Rpp1-b. However, opposite reactions on Rpp1 and Rpp1-b that have been reported in major USA pathogen were also observed in Chiapas samples. A common trend between Chiapas and major USA pathogen was also observed in Rpp3. As the main conclusion of the present study, the 1,000 km distance between these two states in Mexico makes a big difference in the virulence of ASR.