Rice blast disease is present in most rice-growing regions of the world and parts of Australia, however it was not previously known to occur in New South Wales. In February 2024, leaf symptoms characteristic of rice blast were observed on rice in a commercial field near Lismore in northern NSW. The pathogen was isolated and identified based on morphological and molecular features. Isolates were used to inoculate seedlings, res...

Convergent evolution leads to identical phenotypic traits in different species or populations. Convergence can be driven by standing variation allowing selection to favour identical alleles in parallel or the same mutations can arise independently. However, the molecular basis of such convergent adaptation remains often poorly resolved. Pesticide resistance in agricultural ecosystems is a hallmark of convergence in phenotypic...