Most species of this fungus are facultative pathogens of plants and cereals in tropical or subtropical areas, while the remaining is found in temperate zones.
Domesticated from the wild grass Oryza rufipogon 10,000 to 14,000 years ago, this tropical cereal is the main staple for about half of the world's population more than 3 billion people.
Comparison of the Brachypodium genome (accession Bd21) with those of the model dicot Arabidopsis thaliana and the tropical cereal rice (Oryza sativa) provides an opportunity to compare and contrast genetic pathways controlling important traits.
As displayed in Figure 5, rice, a tropical cereal and adaptable to both tropical and temperate regions [ 56], possesses a PMM showing very high activity levels at elevated test temperatures (30 and 37°C).
The results give us an insight into the evolution of flowering-time genes at the monocot/dicot divide and the relationship between temperate cereals (long-day plants with a vernalization requirement) and tropical cereals (short-day plants with no vernalization requirement).
Tropical cereals spread from Central Africa not only into West Africa but also eastward to India and eventually southward to Southern Africa.
It confirms that tropical cereals suffer declining yields when temperatures rise 2°C but finds that the benefits to temperate-climate crops are smaller than was thought.
In tropical regions, cereal sole crops (CV = 26.3) showed lower yield stability than IC (CV = 17.7) and legume sole crops (CV = 21.7).
More distantly related grasses are classified in the PACMAD clade, which includes many of the tropical C4 cereals and grasses such as maize, Sorghum bicolor, pearl millet, sugar cane and Miscanthus spp [ 18].
On a continent that loves to fry food, yet seems incapable of a good fry-up, the bacon, eggs and beans here, offered alongside colossal platters of fresh tropical fruit, yogurt, cereals and great coffee, was outstanding: the best I've had in South America.
