Abstract
We investigated the population structure of the rice blast fungus prevalent in Akita Prefecture in 2000 and 2002 using Pot 2 rep-PCR DNA fingerprinting. Three hundred twenty-five isolates were obtained from 43 districts of the prefecture. All of the isolates, except two (race 003) obtained in 2000, belonged to race 007 and were classified into 39 genotypes using Pot 2 rep-PCR DNA fingerprinting. Four of the genotypes were identical to those of Miyagi isolates. At the 80% similarity level, Akita and Miyagi isolates were divided into nine groups (I-IX). Approximately 80% of them fell into two major groups, VI and VII. These groups appeared to be widely distributed in Akita Prefecture. The results suggest that the population structure of rice blast fungus in Akita Prefecture, determined using Pot 2 rep-PCR DNA fingerprinting, is fairly simple.
