Pseudozyma flocculosa is related to the model plant pathogen Ustilago maydis yet is not a phytopathogen but rather a biocontrol agent of powdery mildews; this relationship makes it unique for the study of the evolution of plant pathogenicity factors. The P. flocculosa genome of ~23 Mb includes 6877 predicted protein coding genes. Genome features, including hallmarks of pathogenicity, are very s...

The usefulness of mixtures (multiline cultivars and cultivar mixtures) for disease management has been well demonstrated for rusts and powdery mildews of small grain crops. Such mixtures are more useful under some epidemiological conditions than under others, and experimental methodology, especially problems of scale, may be crucial in evaluating the potential efficacy of mixtures on disease. T...

The symposium "One fungus = Which name" held in Amsterdam 12-13 April 2012, addressed the drastic changes in the naming of pleomorphic fungi adopted by the 18(th) International Botanical Congress in Melbourne in 2011. Possible solutions and ways to face resulting problems were suggested. The fundamental change is that under the new rules fungi in future will be treated nomenclaturally like plan...

Nutrient uptake in obligate parasitism was recently reviewed by Bushnell and Gay (5) for the powdery mildews. In the rust fungi, the experimental approach to solving this question is quite different, because the fungus mycelium grows only in restricted areas within the leaf. The rust pustules act as foci for the accumulation of many metabolites. The fungus derives nutrients by alteration of the...

This number of Mycological Research News features: In this issue; Fungi associated with insects or used for applied biocontrol ; Powdery mildews as invasive plant pathogens: new epidemics caused by two North American species in Europe; and Genetic differences among nuclei in arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. This theme issue on fungi associated with insects includes ten papers on this topic. These ...

The outwardly directed cell wall and associated plasma membrane of epidermal cells represent the first layers of plant defense against intruding pathogens. Cell wall modifications and the formation of defense structures at sites of attempted pathogen penetration are decisive for plant defense. A precise isolation of these stress-induced structures would allow a specific analysis of regulatory m...

The adoption of modern rice cultivars has increased annual production in the past three decades by 2.4% per annum and average yield by 71% (Khush and Virk 2002). Modern cultivars continue to replace thousands of traditional cultivars (Chang 1994). Although the number of landraces used in breeding modern cultivars has increased in the same period (Hossain et al 2003), many modern cultivars share...