| Cladosporium | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Division: | Ascomycota |
| Class: | Dothideomycetes |
| Order: | Capnodiales |
| Family: | Davidiellaceae |
| Genus: | Cladosporium Link (1816) |
| Type species | |
| Cladosporium herbarum (Pers.) Link (1816) | |
| Synonyms [1] | |
| |
Cladosporium is a genus of fungi including some of the most common indoor and outdoor molds. Some species are endophytes [2] or plant pathogens, while others parasitize fungi.
Species produce olive-green to brown or black colonies, and have dark-pigmented conidia that are formed in simple or branching chains. Many species of Cladosporium are commonly found on living and dead plant material. Including Sunflowers. [3] The spores are wind-dispersed and they are often extremely abundant in outdoor air. Indoors Cladosporium species may grow on surfaces when moisture is present.
Cladosporium fulvum , cause of tomato leaf mould, has been an important genetic model, in that the genetics of host resistance are understood. [4] In the 1960s, it was estimated that the genus Cladosporium contained around 500 plant-pathogenic and saprotrophic species, [5] but this number has since been increased to over 772 species. [6] The genus is very closely related to black yeasts in the order Dothideales. [5] Cladosporium species are often highly osmotolerant, growing easily on media containing 10% glucose or 12–17% NaCl. [5] They are rarely grown on media containing 24% NaCl or 50% glucose and never isolated from medium with 32% NaCl or greater. [5] Most species have very fragile spore chains, making it extremely difficult to prepare a mount for microscopic observation in which the conidial chains are preserved intact. [7]
Cladosporium species are present in the human mycobiome but are rarely pathogenic to humans. They have been reported to cause infections of the skin and toenails as well as sinuses and lungs, with more common symptoms including nasal congestion, sneezing, coughing, and itchy eyes. [8] The airborne spores of Cladosporium species are significant allergens, and in large amounts they can severely affect people with asthma and other respiratory diseases. Cladosporium species produce no major mycotoxins of concern, but do produce volatile organic compounds (VOCs) associated with odours. Fortunately, Cladosporium is not associated with anaphylaxis. [8]
Several Cladosporium species are known to be hyperparasitic to rust fungi. [9] [10] [11]
Rusts are fungal plant pathogens of the order Pucciniales causing plant fungal diseases.
The Oomycetes, or Oomycota, form a distinct phylogenetic lineage of fungus-like eukaryotic microorganisms within the Stramenopiles. They are filamentous and heterotrophic, and can reproduce both sexually and asexually. Sexual reproduction of an oospore is the result of contact between hyphae of male antheridia and female oogonia; these spores can overwinter and are known as resting spores. Asexual reproduction involves the formation of chlamydospores and sporangia, producing motile zoospores. Oomycetes occupy both saprophytic and pathogenic lifestyles, and include some of the most notorious pathogens of plants, causing devastating diseases such as late blight of potato and sudden oak death. One oomycete, the mycoparasite Pythium oligandrum, is used for biocontrol, attacking plant pathogenic fungi. The oomycetes are also often referred to as water molds, although the water-preferring nature which led to that name is not true of most species, which are terrestrial pathogens.
Stem rust, also known as cereal rust, black rust, red rust or red dust, is caused by the fungus Puccinia graminis, which causes significant disease in cereal crops. Crop species that are affected by the disease include bread wheat, durum wheat, barley and triticale. These diseases have affected cereal farming throughout history. The annual recurrence of stem rust of wheat in North Indian plains was discovered by K.C. Mehta. Since the 1950s, wheat strains bred to be resistant to stem rust have become available. Fungicides effective against stem rust are available as well.
Wheat leaf rust is a fungal disease that affects wheat, barley, rye stems, leaves and grains. In temperate zones it is destructive on winter wheat because the pathogen overwinters. Infections can lead up to 20% yield loss. The pathogen is a Puccinia rust fungus. It is the most prevalent of all the wheat rust diseases, occurring in most wheat-growing regions. It causes serious epidemics in North America, Mexico and South America and is a devastating seasonal disease in India. P. triticina is heteroecious, requiring two distinct hosts.
Alternaria is a genus of Deuteromycetes fungi. All species are known as major plant pathogens. They are also common allergens in humans, growing indoors and causing hay fever or hypersensitivity reactions that sometimes lead to asthma. They are present in the human mycobiome and readily cause opportunistic infections in immunocompromised people such as AIDS patients.
Rhizopus microsporus is a fungal plant pathogen infecting maize, sunflower, and rice.
Puccinia asparagi is the causative agent of asparagus rust. It is an autoecious fungus, meaning that all stages of its life cycle – pycniospores, aeciospores, and teliospores – all develop upon the same host plant . Rust diseases are among the most destructive plant diseases, known to cause famine following destruction of grains, vegetables, and legumes. Asparagus rust occurs wherever the plant is grown and attacks asparagus plants during and after the cutting season. Asparagus spears are usually harvested before extensive rust symptoms appear. Symptoms are first noticeable on the growing shoots in early summer as light green, oval lesions, followed by tan blister spots and black, protruding blisters later in the season. The lesions are symptoms of Puccinia asparagi during early spring, mid-summer and later summer to fall, respectively. Severe rust infections stunt or kill young asparagus shoots, causing foliage to fall prematurely, and reduce the ability of the plant to store food reserves. The Puccinia asparagi fungus accomplishes this by rust lowering the amounts of root storage metabolites. The infected plant has reduced plant vigor and yield, often leading to death in severe cases. Most rust diseases have several stages, some of which may occur on different hosts; however, in asparagus rust all the life stages occur on asparagus. Because of this, many observers mistake the different stages of the Puccinia asparagi life cycle as the presence of different diseases. The effects of Puccinia asparagi are present worldwide wherever asparagus is being grown. Asparagus rust is a serious threat to the asparagus industry.
Puccinia helianthi is a macrocyclic and autoecious fungal plant pathogen that causes rust on sunflower. It is also known as "common rust" and "red rust" of sunflower.
Puccinia thaliae is the causal agent of canna rust, a fungal disease of Canna. Symptoms include yellow to tan spots on the plant's leaves and stems. Initial disease symptoms will result in scattered sori, eventually covering the entirety of the leaf with coalescing postulates. Both leaf surfaces, although more predominant on the underside (abaxial) of the leaf, will show yellow to brownish spore-producing these pustulate structures, and these are the signs of the disease. Spots on the upper leaf-surface coalesce and turn to brown-to-black as the disease progresses. Infection spots will become necrotic with time, with small holes developing in older leaves. These infected leaves eventually become dry and prematurely fall.
Puccinia horiana is a species of fungus that causes chrysanthemum white rust, is a disease of plant species of the genus Chrysanthemum.
Austropuccinia is a monotypic genus of rust native to South America with the only species Austropuccinia psidii, commonly known as myrtle rust, guava rust, or ʻōhiʻa rust. It affects plants in the family Myrtaceae. It is a member of the fungal complex called the guava rust group. The spores have a distinctive yellow to orange colour, occasionally encircled by a purple ring. They are found on lesions on new growth including shoots, leaves, buds and fruits. Leaves become twisted and may die. Infections in highly susceptible species may result in the death of the host plant.
Cladosporium fulvum is an Ascomycete called Passalora fulva, a non-obligate pathogen that causes the disease on tomatoes known as the tomato leaf mold. P. fulva only attacks tomato plants, especially the foliage, and it is a common disease in greenhouses, but can also occur in the field. The pathogen is likely to grow in humid and cool conditions. In greenhouses, this disease causes big problems during the fall, in the early winter and spring, due to the high relative humidity of air and the temperature, that are propitious for the leaf mold development. This disease was first described in the North Carolina, by Mordecai Cubitt Cooke (1883), on cultivated tomato, although it is originally from South and Central America. The causal fungus of tomato leaf mold may also be referred to as Cladosporium fulvum, a former name.
Epicoccum nigrum is a species of fungus in the phylum Ascomycota. A plant pathogen and endophyte, it is a widespread fungus which produces coloured pigments that can be used as antifungal agents against other pathogenic fungi. The fluorescent stain epicocconone is extracted from it.
Cladosporium cladosporioides is a darkly pigmented mold that occurs world-wide on a wide range of materials both outdoors and indoors. It is one of the most common fungi in outdoor air where its spores are important in seasonal allergic disease. While this species rarely causes invasive disease in animals, it is an important agent of plant disease, attacking both the leaves and fruits of many plants. This species produces asexual spores in delicate, branched chains that break apart readily and drift in the air. It is able to grow under low water conditions and at very low temperatures.
Cladosporium sphaerospermum is a radiotrophic fungus belonging to the genus Cladosporium and was described in 1886 by Albert Julius Otto Penzig from the decaying leaves and branches of Citrus. It is a dematiaceous (darkly-pigmented) fungus characterized by slow growth and largely asexual reproduction. Cladosporium sphaerospermum consists of a complex of poorly morphologically differentiated, "cryptic" species that share many physiological and ecological attributes. In older literature, all of these sibling species were classified as C. sphaerospermum despite their unique nature. Accordingly, there is confusion in older literature reports on the physiological and habitat regularities of C. sphaerospermum in the strict sense. This fungus is most phylogenetically similar to C. fusiforme. According to modern phylogenetic analyses, the previously synonymized species, Cladosporium langeroni, is a distinct species.
Cladosporium oxysporum is an airborne fungus that is commonly found outdoors and is distributed throughout the tropical and subtropical region, it is mostly located In Asia and Africa. It spreads through airborne spores and is often extremely abundant in outdoor air during the spring and summer seasons. It mainly feeds on decomposing organic matter in warmer climates, but can also be parasitic and feed on living plants. The airborne spores can occasionally cause cutaneous infections in humans, and the high prevalence of C. oxysporum in outdoor air during warm seasons contributes to its importance as an etiological agent of allergic disease and possibly human cutaneous phaeohyphomycosis in tropical regions.
Cladosporium herbarum is a common fungus found worldwide in organic and inorganic matter. It is efficiently distributed in the air, where it exists as the most frequently occurring fungal species. It can grow over a wide range of temperatures including very cold environments, giving it the ability to grow on refrigerated meat and form "black spots". Its high prevalence in the air and production of allergens makes C. herbarum an important exacerbant of asthma and hay fever.
Curvularia pallescens is a soil fungus, that commonly grows on crops found in tropical regions. The conidia of the fungus are distinguishable from those of related species due to their lack of curvature. C. pallescens has been reported to cause infection in plants, and in immunocompetent individuals. This species is the anamorph of Cochliobolus pallescens.
Said Amin (Gabe) Ghabrial was an Egyptian-American plant pathologist, known for his work on mycoviruses – viruses of fungi – and particularly their effects on the virulence of plant-pathogenic fungi. He also researched bean pod mottle virus, an economically important soybean disease. He was professor of plant pathology at the University of Kentucky (1986–2014).
Puccinia porri is a species of rust fungus that causes leek rust. It affects leek, garlic, onion, and chives, and usually appears as bright orange spots on infected plants.
| Authority control databases: National |
|---|
