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Content Tagged "plant pathogen"

Lessons learned from comparing Cochliobolus fungi

Cochliobolus fungi are cereal grain pathogens in the Dothideomycetes class, and many species are known to infect crops such as corn, rice, barley, wheat and oats, causing severe losses at harvest time and to biomass feedstocks for biofuels. In a study published January 24, 2013 in Plos Genetics, one in a series of publications concerning… [Read More]

A fungal pathogen with a “genetically flexible” genome

In 2012, the damp winter threatened the wheat harvest in the state of Kansas, the nation’s single largest producer of the grain and wheat prices rose by 10 percent as a result. Diseases such as tan spot caused by the fungus Pyrenophoratritici-repentis (Ptr) factored into the reduced wheat harvests. In North Dakota, which ranks second… [Read More]

Lifestyles of a fungal plant pathogen family

The fungi that belong to the Dothideomycetes family are found on every continent and can tolerate a wide range of environmental extremes. Additionally, several of the fungi are plant pathogens that infect nearly every major crop used for food, fiber or fuel. In the December 6, 2012 issue of PLoS Pathogens, an international team led… [Read More]

Fungal pathogens – the common thread between pine and tomato

The disease that causes leaf mold on a tomato was first reported in the 1800s but hasn’t posed a major economic threat for several decades. Needle blight affects pine species around the world, causing severe economic losses. At first glance, the diseases appear unrelated but they are both caused by related fungal plant pathogens from… [Read More]

Mite genome to help protect bioenergy feedstocks

The tiny two-spotted spider mite extracts nutrients from the leaves of 1,100 plant species including bioenergy feedstock crops. The global cost of chemically controlling this pest is estimated to be around $1 billion annually. Given its potential to significantly reduce crop yields and inhibit biofuel production, the spider mite Tetranychusurticaewas selected for the 2007 DOE… [Read More]

Toward a Better Understanding of Soil-Microbe Interactions

In the August 2011 issue of the Journal of Bacteriology, a team of researchers led by DOE JGI’s Patrick Chain at Los Alamos National Laboratory focused on a microbe that can help or harm as the case may be. Ochrobactrum anthropi thrives in a variety of habitats including polluted soil, plants and even higher mammals…. [Read More]

Mycosphaerella genome project in Capital Press

Septoria typically infects young seedlings that have recently emerged, creating lesions, and spreading to the higher leaves. It can affect yield and quality, Goodwin said. Control methods are typically fungicide sprays, he noted. Igor Grigoriev, of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute in Walnut Creek, Calif., has been sequencing the genomes of other… [Read More]

Mycosphaerella project in Media Newswire

Enzymes often break down plant cell walls and begin removing nutrients, leading to the plant’s death. M. graminicola, however, enters the plant through stomata, small pores in the surface of leaves that allow for exchange of gases and water.  Goodwin said the fungus seems to lay dormant between plant cells, avoiding detection. It later infects… [Read More]

Mycosphaerella genome project in Agricultural Research

The pathogen that causes the disease, Mycosphaerella graminicola, has a long “silent period,” a latent stage during which it takes nutrition from the living plant and evades the host plant’s natural defenses. Scientists previously did not have a good understanding of how the organism infects wheat, or how the wheat plant itself resists the pathogen…. [Read More]

Mycosphaerella genome project in Farmers Guardian

SCIENTISTS have cracked the genetic code of septoria tritici – the most important foliar disease of wheat in the UK – and in doing so have gained an insight into how the disease is able to evade wheat’s natural defences. The researchers, who were funded by the BBSRC and others, hope the study, which reveals… [Read More]