No abstract

South Africa is one of the leading maize-producing countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Since the 1980s, Cercospora zeina, a causal agent of gray leaf spot (GLS) of maize, has become endemic in South Africa, and is responsible for substantial yield reductions. To assess genetic diversity and population structure of C. zeina in South Africa, 369 isolates were collected from commercial maize farms in three provinces (KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and North West). These isolates were evaluated with fourteen microsatellite markers and species-specific mating type markers that were designed from draft genome sequences of C. zeina isolates from Africa (CMW 25467) and USA (USPA-4). Sixty alleles were identified across 14 loci, and gene diversity values within each