Pyricularia blast on white oats: a new threat to wheat cultivation

A newly emerged disease, the Pyricularia blast caused by Pyricularia grisea, is commonly observed on wheat and black oats, since its discovery in 1985. Within a few years the disease spread to other species of Gramineae, but white oat cultivars remained resistant and were the only ones among cultivated cereals resistant to this disease. In 2012, one commercial field of white oat cultivar IAC 7 was found severely attacked by Pyricularia blast in Assis, in the state of São Paulo. The objective of the present investigation was to find out whether other white oat cultivars are also susceptible to...