Finger millet blast caused by Pyricularia oryzae is the most globally important disease of finger millet. The disease ravages cultivated finger millet, posing a threat to one of the world’s most important, climate-resilient, and nutrient-rich cereal crops, which serves as an important source of food security. Both pathogenic and mutualistic fungi colonize plant tissues and compete for the same niche, subsequently influencing the disease pathogenesis. We analyzed the natural dynamics of the fungal community associated with finger millet blast. Fungal culture was performed on blast-diseased finger millet tissues collected from different agro-ecological regions in Kenya. Fifty-five isolates were obtained from finger, leaf and neck tissues with blast symptoms and characterized based on morphology and DNA sequencing of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and 28S rDNA regions. The identified fungal genera corresponded to Exserohilum, Sarocladium, Fusarium, Epicoccum, Cochliobolus, Curvularia, Bipolaris, Penicillium, Setosphaeria, Phoma, and Alternaria, in addition to two unnamed fungal species. Many fungal pathogens of other crops that are not inherently expected to be present on finger millet were encountered, including Penicillium citrinum. Multi-gene phylogenetic studies using concatenated sequences for the ITS and 28SrDNA regions were analyzed using IQ-tree on maximum likelihood basis and aligned using MAFFT to generate a tree with two distinct groups, which were further segregated into several subgroups. The outcome of this study provides useful information on the type of fungal community associated with finger millet blast, which may open avenues for understanding and protecting against finger millet blast disease in Kenya.

稻瘟病菌引起的手指小米瘟是全球最重要的指黍病。这种疾病肆虐种植的小米，对世界上最重要、最能适应气候变化且营养丰富的谷物作物之一构成威胁，这种作物是粮食安全的重要来源。病原真菌和共生真菌都定植于植物组织并竞争相同的生态位，从而影响疾病的发病机制。我们分析了与手指小米瘟相关的真菌群落的自然动态。真菌培养是在从肯尼亚不同农业生态区收集的稻瘟病手指小米组织上进行的。从具有稻瘟病症状的手指、叶和颈部组织中获得了 55 个分离株，并基于内部转录间隔区 (ITS) 和 28S rDNA 区域的形态学和 DNA 测序进行了表征。玉米大，Sarocladium，镰刀菌属，附球菌，旋孢腔菌，弯，蠕，青霉，玉米大斑，茎点和黑斑，另外还有两名不愿透露姓名的真菌种类。遇到了许多其他作物的真菌病原体，这些病原体本来就不会出现在手指小米上，包括柑橘青霉. 使用 ITS 和 28SrDNA 区域的连接序列的多基因系统发育研究在最大似然基础上使用 IQ 树进行分析，并使用 MAFFT 进行比对以生成具有两个不同组的树，这些组进一步分为几个亚组。这项研究的结果提供了与手指小米瘟相关的真菌群落类型的有用信息，这可能为了解和预防肯尼亚的手指小米瘟病开辟道路。