Magnaporthe oryzae is the casual agent of rice blast which causes approximately 30% yield loss annually. The objective of
this study was to investigate the effect of media on various morphological characteristics, confirmation of isolates by molecular
and phylogenetic study and relationship between morphological characteristics and pathogenicity study. The fungus can be
isolated on alternative media. Isolation on oatmeal agar (OMA) showed variation among isolates characteristics. The colonies
color slightly varied from brownish black to dark grayish green. Compared to isolates cultured on potato dextrose agar (PDA)
they showed darker colours. Sporulation of isolates varied based on the isolates and media. Isolates on OMA showed better
sporulation compared to PDA. Radial growth of isolates were different among isolates on each media. Isolate M03 showed the
highest amount of sporulation on PDA and OMAwith numbers of 5.43 and 5.57 spore/ml. results shows that highest dry weight
is recorded for isolate M03 by the number of 0.57 gram. Molecular characterization results by internal transcribed spacer 1 and
4 showed all isolates belong to Magnaporthe spp. and phylogenetic analysis confirmed that isolates belong to Magnaporthe
grisea deposited in GeneBank with 99% similarity. Pathogenicity results were different based on the isolates and their origin.
Mahboubeh Mohammadpourlima, Ali Yassoralipour, Phuah Eng Tong, Zainal Abidin Mior Ahmad, Wong Mui Yun. (2017) MORPHOLOGICAL AND MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATIONS OF RICE BLAST FUNGUS, Magnaporthe oryzae, , Volume 54, Issue 4.
