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The ability to rapidly adapt to changing environments is crucial for the success of pathogens infecting plants and animals. In some eukaryotic pathogens, rapid evolution can be mediated by genome rearrangements, which...

The haploid genome of the pathogenic fungus Zymoseptoria tritici is contained on “core” and “accessory” chromosomes. While 13 core chromosomes are found in all strains, as many as eight accessory chromosomes show presence/absence variation and rearrangements among field isolates. The factors influencing these presence/absence polymorphisms are so far unknown. We investigated chromosome stability using experimental evolution, karyotyping, and genome sequencing. We report extremely high and variable rates of accessory chromosome loss during mitotic propagation in vitro and in planta. Spontaneous chromosome loss was observed in 2 to >50% of cells during 4 …