Thermal Adaptation in Worldwide Collections of a Major Fungal Pathogen
OPEN ACCESS
Loading...
Author / Producer
Date
2025
Publication Type
Journal Article
ETH Bibliography
yes
Citations
Altmetric
OPEN ACCESS
Data
Abstract
Adaptation to new climates poses a significant challenge for plant pathogens during range expansion, highlighting the importance of understanding their response to climate to accurately forecast future disease outbreaks. The wheat pathogen Zymoseptoria tritici is ubiquitous across most wheat production regions distributed across diverse climate zones. We explored the genetic architecture of thermal adaptation using a global collection of 411 Z. tritici strains that were phenotyped across a wide range of temperatures and then included in a genome-wide association study. Our analyses provided evidence for local thermal adaptation in Z. tritici populations worldwide, with a significant positive correlation between bioclimatic variables and optimal growth temperatures. We also found a high variability in thermal performance among Z. tritici strains from the same field populations, reflecting the high evolutionary potential of this pathogen at the field scale. We identified 69 genes putatively involved in thermal adaptation, including one high-confidence candidate potentially involved in cold adaptation. These results highlight the complex polygenic nature of thermal adaptation in Z. tritici and suggest that this pathogen is likely to adapt well when confronted with climate change.Copyright (c) 2025 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
Permanent link
Publication status
published
External links
Editor
Book title
Journal / series
Volume
38 (2)
Pages / Article No.
252 - 264
Publisher
American Phytopathological Society
Event
Edition / version
Methods
Software
Geographic location
Date collected
Date created
Subject
genome-wide association study (GWAS); local adaptation; thermal adaptation; wheat pathogen; Zymoseptoria tritici
Organisational unit
03516 - McDonald, Bruce (emeritus) / McDonald, Bruce (emeritus)
08857 - Maurhofer, Monika (Tit.-Prof.) / Maurhofer, Monika (Tit.-Prof.)