Blumeria graminis f. sp. avenae

Blumeria graminis f. sp. avenae (Bga), the causal agent of powdery mildew disease on oats, is one of the most important diseases of oat production. The main control strategies include the use of fungicides and resistant cultivars. However, with the overuse of chemical controls and a dependency on a limited number of resistance genes, this pathogen is becoming more difficult to control and eradicate from the crop. To date, only 12 genes that confer resistance to Bga have been catalogued in oats, and only half of these are deployed in commercially available oat cultivars. Because of this, there is a constant need to understand the mechanisms underlying oat resistance and a demand for new durable forms of resistance.