Morphological Variability of Rice Blast Pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae

Rice is the most staple food crop for the human population worldwide. Both biotic and abiotic diseases are known to cause losses to the Rice crop. Mostly, grain yield losses are reported due to blast disease caused by Magnaporthe oryzae across all crop growing areas of the world. Leaf blast samples were collected from various rice-growing areas in Warangal and samples were tested on different growth media and found that OMA+Rice leaf extract was the most suitable for promoting radial growth, conidial size, and sporulation of the pathogenic isolate. Among the eight isolates studied, the Maheshwaram isolate (M-2) exhibited the highest radial growth, conidial size, and good sporulation. This suggests that this particular isolate might be more aggressive or virulent than the others and could pose a greater threat to rice crops in the region.This could lead to more effective strategies for managing blast disease and minimizing yield losses in rice crops in the specific region.