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Hi All-

The discussion on the rice blast fungus name continues but voting closed on September 30 (yesterday).  I post the statistics below for your information. 

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Rice Blast Fungus Name -- Magnaporthe or Pyricularia?  (31 March 2013)

The asexual genus name Pyricularia has been used for the rice blast fungus since 1892.  Based on morphological similarity, the sexual state of the rice blast fungus was believed to belong to Magnaporthe, and was named as Magnaporthe oryzae in 2002.   However, recent phylogenetic analyses from different labs all demonstrated that the rice blast fungus does not belong to Magnaporthe.  Therefore, a name change is needed.  The new fungal nomenclature requires One Name for One Fungus, and the asexual state names are now treated equally as the sexual state names.  As the oldest and legitimate generic name for the rice blast fungus, Pyricularia has the priority.  However, because this fungus is a widely used model system and has large impacts, researchers from all over the world have been discussing this name issue since April 2012 in the CBS One Fungus, Which Name symposium at Amsterdam.  The most recent discuss was at the Asilomar Fungal Genetics Conference in March 2013.  A summary of the reasons for using Pyricularia vs. Magnaporthe is listed below.  

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Hi All-

The type species of Magnaporthe is Magnaporthe salvinii (rice stem rot), which is not congeneric with Magnaporthe (Pyricularia) oryzae or grisea, based on phylogenetic analysis, morphology, and ecological characters (for details, see Zhang et al. Mycologia. 2011 103(6):1267-76. doi: 10.3852/11-022).  Therefore, a change of genus name is needed.  If we follow the new nomenclature (Melbourne Code), which considers names for sexual and asexual morphs equally, the name for the rice blast fungus should be Pyricularia oryzae, while the name for the stem rot is Nakataea oryzae, because these are the older generic names.  Another option is to write a proposal to conserve the genus Magnaporthe for the blast fungus.