Smut is a serious disease in Job's tears, also known as adlay, and contributes to the reduction of crop yield in agricultural fields. In this study, the key pathogenic fungi in adlay smut disease were first identified by internal transcribed spacer region (ITS) high-throughput sequencing and then used to elucidate the composition and diversity of the fungal community in adlay smut. Results indicate that an abundance of operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were detected in the infected involucres of flowering plants and the OTUs were classified to nine phyla, 20 classes, 45 orders, 90 families and 119 genera. A total of 4 986 OTUs clustered together, sharing six core OTUs in all samples, while 145 OTUs were shared among four geographical groups. The Shannon and Simpson indices ranged from 0.137–1.629 and 0.357–0.970, respectively. Community diversity ranked as Anshun (AS)>Qinglong (QL)>Xingren (XR)>Xingyi (XY) among the four geographical groups by Shannon and Simpson indices, exhibiting complex community diversities among accessions and geographical groups. The richness and diversity data imply a weak relationship between the accession community richness and geographical origins of samples. Two closely related fungal genera, Sporisorium and Ustilago, were implicated as causes of smut disease. The genus Sporisorium appears to be more commonly found among accessions and thus is more likely to be the fungal pathogen causing smut in adlay. This work can facilitate strategies to control and prevent smut infection to improve adlay yield.

黑穗病是乔布斯眼中的一种严重疾病，也被称为ad粉，并导致农业领域农作物减产。在这项研究中，首先通过内部转录间隔区（ITS）高通量测序鉴定了黑穗病的关键病原真菌，然后用于阐明黑穗病的真菌群落的组成和多样性。结果表明，在感染的开花植物总in中检测到大量的操作分类单位（OTU），并将OTU分为9个门，20个类，45个目，90个科和119个属。总共4 986个OTU聚集在一起，在所有样本中共享六个核心OTU，而四个地理组之间共享145个OTU。香农指数和辛普森指数的范围分别为0.137–1.629和0.357–0.970。在Shannon和Simpson指数的四个地理区域中，社区多样性分别为安顺（AS）>庆隆（QL）>兴仁（XR）>兴义（XY），表现出种质和地理区域之间复杂的社区多样性。丰富度和多样性数据暗示了登录群体丰富度与样本地理起源之间的弱关系。两个密切相关的真菌属，孢子囊和Ustilago，被认为是导致黑穗病的原因。孢子囊菌属似乎在种质中更常见，因此更可能是引起病原体黑穗病的真菌病原体。这项工作可以促进控制和预防黑穗病感染的策略，以提高蛋lay产量。