Given its biological significance, determining the dispersal kernel (i.e., the distribution of dispersal distances) of spore-producing pathogens is essential. Here, we report two field experiments designed to measure disease gradients caused by sexually- and asexually-produced spores of the wind-dispersed banana plant fungus Mycosphaerella fijiensis. Gradients were measured during a single gene...

A database of 30,137 EST sequences from Mycosphaerella graminicola, the septoria tritici blotch fungus of wheat, was scanned with a custom software pipeline for di- and trinucleotide units repeated tandemly six or more times. The bioinformatics analysis identified 109 putative SSR loci, and for 99 of them, flanking primers were developed successfully and tested for amplification and polymorphis...

Muscodor crispans is a recently described novel endophytic fungus of Ananas ananassoides (wild pineapple) growing in the Bolivian Amazon Basin. The fungus produces a mixture of volatile organic compounds (VOCs); some of the major components of this mixture, as determined by GC/MS, are propanoic acid, 2-methyl-, methyl ester; propanoic acid, 2-methyl-; 1-butanol, 3-methyl-;1-butanol, 3-methyl-, ...

Species of the ascomycete genus Mycosphaerella are regarded as some of the most destructive leaf pathogens of a large number of economically important crop plants. Amongst these, approximately 60 Mycosphaerella spp. have been identified from various Eucalyptus spp. where they cause leaf diseases collectively known as Mycosphaerella Leaf Disease (MLD). Species concepts for this group of fungi re...

Banana is the fourth most important staple food in the world, behind rice, wheat, and maize, with more than 100 million tons produced annually [1]. Although the majority of bananas produced are consumed locally, banana export is a multi-billion–dollar business [2]. Bananas are grown in more than 100 countries worldwide, largely in developing countries in tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and La...

Species of Eucalyptus, mostly native to Australia, are widely planted as exotics in the tropics and Southern Hemisphere. These plantations represent an important source of fuel-wood, structural timber and pulp. Eucalyptus plantations are, however, vulnerable to infection by pathogens, including Mycosphaerella spp. and their anamorphs, which have caused substantial damage, in many parts of the w...