Fig. 2

The disease cycle of rice kernel smut. a Tilletia horrida produces dark, powdery teliospores in the rice panicles. b Mature dark powdery teliospores. c Germinating teliospores. d Distal verticillated digitations. e Leaves or seeds of rice and paddy field weeds may exhibit epiphytic budding by T. horrida, which may contribute to the initial infection of rice flowers. f The secondary microspores of T. horrida. g The exserted stigma of rice male sterile lines. h Rice stigma infected by T. horrida. After removing to ovaries (i). j Primary teliospores were produced in ovaries. Shown are the paths for the sexual (solid lines) and asexual (dashed line) growth in the disease cycles. Figure adapted from Wang et al. (2018a) and Tao et al. (1998)