Fig. 1

Symptoms of blast disease in different parts of wheat plants. a Complete to partial infections (right to left) in wheat spikes collected from a blast-affected field. Arrow indicates the point of infection. b A characteristic patch (see the circle) of blast infection indicating the early stage of field infection. c Complete bleaching (arrow) of 100% spikes in a blast-devastated field. d Unaffected and normal color of wheat grains. e Severely shrivelled or wrinkled and discoloured wheat grains affected by the wheat blast. f Two shrivelled grains (whitish color, arrow) and a normal (green)-colored unaffected grain just below the infection point in a spike. g Typical eye-shaped lesion (arrow) with gray center. h Brown colored lesions with gray centers (arrows) of an infected stem of wheat