Sensitivity of the U.S. Wheat Powdery Mildew Population to Quinone Outside Inhibitor Fungicides and Determination of the Complete Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici Cytochrome b Gene

Wheat powdery mildew, caused by Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici, is managed primarily with cultivar resistance and foliar fungicides. Quinone outside inhibitors (QoIs), which target the mitochondrial cytochrome b (cytb) gene, are one of the two main fungicide classes used on wheat. While European populations of B. graminis f. sp. tritici are widely insensitive to QoIs, largely because of the cytb mutation G143A, the QoI sensitivity of the U.S. B. graminis f. sp. tritici population had never been evaluated despite years of QoI use on U.S. wheat. A total of 381 B. graminis f. sp. tritici isolates from 15 central and eastern U.S. states were screened for sensitivity to QoI fungicides pyraclostrobin and picoxystrobin. A modest range of sensitivities was observed, with maximum resistance factors of 11.2 for pyraclostrobin and 5.3 for picoxystrobin. The F129L, G137R, and G143A cytb mutations were not detected in the U.S. B. graminis f. sp. tritici population, nor were mutations identified in the PEWY loop, a key part of the Qo site. Thus, no genetic basis for the observed quantitative variation in QoI sensitivity of U.S. B. graminis f. sp. tritici was identified. Isolate sporulation was weakly negatively associated with reduced QoI sensitivity, suggesting a fitness cost. In the course of the study, the complete B. graminis f. sp. tritici cytb gene sequence was determined for the first time in the isolate 96224 v. 3.16 reference genome. Contrary to previous reports, the gene has an intron that appears to belong to intron group II, which is unusual in fungi. The study was the first QoI sensitivity screening of a large, geographically diverse set of U.S. B. graminis f. sp. tritici isolates, and while the population as a whole remains relatively sensitive, some quantitative loss of efficacy was observed.