Program 1 - Pathogen studies: Effective genetic and sustainable management of Ascochyta blight of Chickpea (Phase 2)

Ascochyta blight (AB) is a major disease in chickpea that is caused by the Ascochyta rabiei fungi and can lead to significant damages to crops and yield losses under favourable conditions when not managed. Our previous studies shown that Ascochyta rabiei isolates are rapidly adapting to overcome the resistance of the chickpea varieties currently in use by the industry and pose a major threat to production. Currently, there is a gap in our understanding of the pathogen and what factors drives its aggressiveness, both internal, such as genes and external (environmental factors for example). This project aims to improve our knowledge of AB pathogen by investigating its population structure and aggressiveness in Australia, including factors influencing pathogen evolution and population adaptation under current and future climatic conditions and disseminate it to breeders, pre-breeders and growers. This program will collect isolates from the main Australian chickpea growing regions and will use state-of-the-art molecular and genomic tools to monitor the population structure, develop diagnostics assays to identify invasion of exotic isolates from overseas and between regions and identify genomic factors that control isolate adaptation and aggressiveness. The outcomes of this projects will be disseminated to research and industry partners and will be translated into new disease management strategies and tools to future-proof chickpea production in Australia in the face of climate change and increased global trade to ensure that chickpea is considered as a viable and valuable crop and income source for Australian farmers.