Blight is a specific symptom affecting plants in response to infection by a pathogenic organism.
Corn smut is a plant disease caused by the pathogenic fungus Mycosarcoma maydis. One of several cereal crop pathogens called smut, the fungus forms galls on all above-ground parts of corn species such as maize and teosinte. The infected corn is edible; in Mexico, it is considered a delicacy, called huitlacoche, often eaten as a filling in quesadillas and other tortilla-based dishes, as well as in soups.
A satellite is a subviral agent that depends on the coinfection of a host cell with a helper virus for its replication. Satellites can be divided into two major classes: satellite viruses and satellite nucleic acids. Satellite viruses, which are most commonly associated with plants, are also found in mammals, arthropods, and bacteria. They encode structural proteins to enclose their genetic material, which are therefore distinct from the structural proteins of their helper viruses. Satellite nucleic acids, in contrast, do not encode their own structural proteins, but instead are encapsulated by proteins encoded by their helper viruses. The genomes of satellites range upward from 359 nucleotides in length for satellite tobacco ringspot virus RNA (STobRV).
The smuts are multicellular fungi characterized by their large numbers of teliospores. The smuts get their name from a Germanic word for 'dirt' because of their dark, thick-walled, and dust-like teliospores. They are mostly Ustilaginomycetes and comprise seven of the 15 orders of the subphylum. Most described smuts belong to two orders, Ustilaginales and Tilletiales. The smuts are normally grouped with the other basidiomycetes because of their commonalities concerning sexual reproduction.
Ustilago is a genus of approximately 200 smut fungi, which are parasitic on grasses. 170 species are accepted by Wijayawardene et al. 2020; After phylogenetic research certain species in Ustilago, Macalpinomyces, and other genera in the Ustilaginaceae clade have been moved to other genera like Mycosarcoma.
Sugarcane smut is a fungal disease of sugarcane caused by the fungus Sporisorium scitamineum. The disease is known as culmicolous, which describes the outgrowth of fungus of the stalk on the cane. It attacks several sugarcane species and has been reported to occur on a few other grass species as well, but not to a critical amount. The most recognizable characteristic of this disease is a black or gray growth that is referred to as a "smut whip". Resistance to sugarcane smut is the best course of action for management, but also the use of disease free seed is important. On smaller scale operations treatments using hot water and removing infected plants can be effective. The main mode of spore dispersal is the wind but the disease also spreads through the use of infected cuttings. Sugarcane smut is a devastating disease in sugarcane growing areas globally.
The Ustilaginomycotina is a subdivision within the division Basidiomycota of the kingdom Fungi. It consists of the classes Ustilaginomycetes and Exobasidiomycetes, and in 2014 the subdivision was reclassified and the two additional classes Malasseziomycetes and Monilielliomycetes added. The name was first published by Doweld in 2001; Bauer and colleagues later published it in 2006 as an isonym. Ustilagomycotina and Agaricomycotina are considered to be sister groups, and they are in turn sister groups to the subdivision Pucciniomycotina.
Sporisorium sorghi, commonly known as sorghum smut, is a plant pathogen that belongs to the Ustilaginaceae family. This fungus is the causative agent of covered kernel smut disease and infects sorghum plants all around the world such as Sorghum bicolor (sorghum), S. sudanense, S. halepense and Sorghumvulgare var. technichum (broomcorn). Ineffective control of S. sorghi can have serious economic and ecological implications.
Sporisorium reilianum Langdon & Full., (1978), previously known as Sphacelotheca reiliana, and Sporisorium reilianum, is a species of biotrophic fungus in the family Ustilaginaceae. It is a plant pathogen that infects maize and sorghum.
The Ustilaginaceae are a family of smut fungi in the order Ustilaginomycetes. Collectively, the family contains 17 genera and 607 species.
In molecular biology, the killer toxin Kp4 family is a family of killer toxins, which includes the Kp4 killer toxin from the smut fungus Ustilago maydis.
Ustilago esculenta is a species of fungus in the Ustilaginaceae, a family of smut fungi. It is in the same genus as the fungi that cause corn smut, loose smut of barley, false loose smut, covered smut of barley, loose smut of oats, and other grass diseases. This species is pathogenic as well, attacking Manchurian wild rice, also known as Manchurian ricegrass, Asian wild rice, and wateroat. This grass is its only known host.
Kálmán Géza Vánky was a Hungarian mycologist with Swedish and Hungarian citizenship, who lived in Germany. He was considered to be the worldwide authority on the subject of smut fungi and has dominated the taxonomic study of Ustilaginomycetes for at least the past four decades.
Zizania latifolia, known as Manchurian wild rice, is the only member of the wild rice genus Zizania native to Asia. It is used as a food plant. Both the stem and grain are edible. Gathered in the wild, Manchurian wild rice was an important grain in ancient China. A wetland plant, Manchurian wild rice is now very rare in the wild, and its use as a grain has completely disappeared in Asia, though it continues to be cultivated for its stems. A measure of its former popularity is that the surname Jiǎng, one of the most common in China, derives from this crop.
Ustilagic acid is an organic compound with the formula C36H64O18. The acid is a cellobiose lipid produced by the corn smut fungus Ustilago maydis under conditions of nitrogen starvation. The acid was discovered in 1950 and was proved to be an amphipathic glycolipid with surface active properties. The name comes from Latin ustus which means burnt and refers to the scorched appearance of the smut fungi.
Ferrichrome A is a siderophore in the ferrichrome family. Iron is an essential element for the survival and proliferation of organisms. Microorganisms produce and secrete potent iron chelators, also known as siderophores, to aid in the sequestration and increase bioavailability of iron. Since the discovery of ferrichrome in 1952, the ferrichrome family of siderophores contains at least 20 structurally distinct members of cyclic hexapeptides that chelate ferric iron via an octahedral coordination geometry through the oxygen atoms of the hydroxyl and the acyl groups of the three ornithine residues. Ferrichrome A was found as one of the two siderophores produced by the biotrophic basidiomycete Ustilago maydis during its saprotrophic growth phase. U. maydis is the causative agent of corn smut.
Regine Kahmann is a German microbiologist and was Director at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg from 2000 to 2019. She was made a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMRS) in 2020.
Reginald H. Haskins was a Canadian mycologist. Born in North Bay, Ontario, Haskins trained as a botanist, specializing in mycology, receiving his master's degree from the University of Western Ontario and his doctorate degree from Harvard University in 1949. He lived with his wife and three children in Saskatoon, Canada.
Moesziomyces is a fungal genus in the family Ustilaginaceae.
Harpophora maydis, also known by late wilt, the vascular maize disease it causes, is a species of fungus in the family Magnaporthaceae.
