Lotus rhizome rot is one of the most important diseases affecting lotus production, leading to heavy economic losses in Japan. In this study, a causal agent of lotus rhizome rot in Yamaguchi prefecture, Japan, were identified as Fusarium commune based on their morphology and nucleotide sequences of EF-1α, HistonH3, and mtSSU. The inoculation tests showed that plants inoculated with F. commune isolated from lotus were more affected than those inoculated with strains from other hosts (tomato, turnip, and komatsuna) and soil in wheat fields. This result shows that particular strains of F. commune have virulence for lotus plants. Whole genome sequencing of the lotus-infecting F. commune revealed 20 effector candidates, including SIX4 and SIX9 homologs. Of these genes, 10 were expressed only in the roots of lotus but not in minimal medium. In particular, g3613 was specifically maintained in lotus-infecting F. commune, suggesting that this gene may be one of the candidate determinants of the host specificity of F. commune for lotus plants.

莲根腐病是影响荷花生产的重要病害之一，给日本造成了重大的经济损失。在这项研究中，根据EF-1α、HistonH3和mtSSU的形态学和核苷酸序列，日本山口县的莲根茎腐病的病原体被鉴定为群落镰刀菌。接种试验表明，接种从荷花中分离出的F. commune 的植物比接种其他宿主（番茄、萝卜和小松菜）菌株和麦田土壤的植物受到的影响更大。该结果表明， F. commune的特定菌株对荷花植物具有毒力。感染荷花的全基因组测序F. commune揭示了 20 个候选效应子，包括SIX4和SIX9同系物。在这些基因中，有 10 个基因仅在莲根中表达，而在基本培养基中不表达。特别地，g3613在感染荷花的公用莲子中得到特异性维持，表明该基因可能是公用莲子对荷属植物宿主特异性的候选决定因素之一。