Basidiomycota is one of two large divisions that, together with the Ascomycota, constitute the subkingdom Dikarya within the kingdom Fungi. Members are known as basidiomycetes. More specifically, Basidiomycota includes these groups: agarics, puffballs, stinkhorns, bracket fungi, other polypores, jelly fungi, boletes, chanterelles, earth stars, smuts, bunts, rusts, mirror yeasts, and Cryptococcus, the human pathogenic yeast.
Rusts are fungal plant pathogens of the order Pucciniales causing plant fungal diseases.
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.
Karnal bunt is a fungal disease of wheat, durum wheat, and triticale. The smut fungus Tilletia indica, a basidiomycete, invades the kernels and obtains nutrients from the endosperm, leaving behind waste products with a disagreeable odor that makes bunted kernels too unpalatable for use in flour or pasta. While Karnal bunt generally does not lead to devastating crop losses, it has the potential to dramatically decrease yield, and poses additional economic concerns through quarantines which limit the export of suspected infectious wheat products from certain areas, including the U.S. Several chemical control methods exist for Karnal bunt of wheat, but much work remains to be done in identifying resistant host varieties.
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.
Common bunt, also known as hill bunt, Indian bunt, European bunt, stinking smut or covered smut, is a disease of both spring and winter wheats. It is caused by two very closely related fungi, Tilletia tritici and T. laevis.
Loose smut of barley is caused by Ustilago nuda. It is a disease that can destroy a large proportion of a barley crop. Loose smut replaces grain heads with smut, or masses of spores which infect the open flowers of healthy plants and grow into the seed, without showing any symptoms. Seeds appear healthy and only when they reach maturity the following season is it clear that they were infected. Systemic fungicides are the major control method for loose smut.
Tilletia caries is a basidiomycete that causes common bunt of wheat. The common names of this disease are stinking bunt of wheat and stinking smut of wheat. This pathogen infects wheat, rye, and various other grasses. T. caries is economically and agriculturally important because it reduces both the wheat yield and grain quality.
Urocystis agropyri is a fungal plant pathogen that causes flag smut on wheat.
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 menthae is a fungal plant pathogen that causes rust on mint plants. It was originally found on the leaves of Mentha aquatica.
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.
Exobasidium vaccinii, commonly known as “red leaf disease,” or “Azalea Gall,” is a biotrophic species of fungus that causes galls on ericaceous plant species, such as blueberry and azalea. Exobasidium vaccinii is considered the type species of the Exobasidium genus. As a member of the Ustilagomycota, it is a basidiomycete closely related to smut fungi. Karl Wilhelm Gottlieb Leopold Fuckel first described the species in 1861 under the basionym Fusidium vaccinii, but in 1867 Mikhail Stepanovich Voronin later placed it in the genus Exobasidium. The type specimen is from Germany, and it is held in the Swedish Museum of Natural History. Exobasidium vaccinii, in current definition from John Axel Nannfeldt in 1981, is limited on the host Vaccinium vitis-idaea. This idea is used in most recent papers on E. vaccinii.
Thecaphora is a genus of basidiomycote fungus which contains several species of plant pathogens. The widespread genus contained about 57 species in 2008. and held 61 species in 2020.
Puccinia horiana is a species of fungus that causes chrysanthemum white rust, is a disease of plant species of the genus Chrysanthemum.
Salmacisia is a fungal genus in the family Tilletiaceae. It is a monotypic genus, containing the single species Salmacisia buchloëana, first described as Tilletia buchloëana in 1889, and renamed in 2008. Plants infected by the fungus undergo a phenomenon known as "parasitically induced hermaphroditism", whereby ovary development is induced in otherwise male plants. Because of the pistil-inducing effects of the fungus, the authors have named the species pistil smut; it is the only species in the order Tilletiales known to have hermaphroditic effects.
Entorrhizomycetes is the sole class in the phylum Entorrhizomycota, within the Fungi subkingdom Dikarya along with Basidiomycota and Ascomycota. It contains three genera and is a small group of teliosporic root parasites that form galls on plants in the Juncaceae (rush) and Cyperaceae (sedge) families. Prior to 2015 this phylum was placed under the subdivision Ustilaginomycotina. A 2015 study did a "comprehensive five-gene analyses" of Entorrhiza and concluded that the former class Entorrhizomycetes is possibly either a close sister group to the rest of Dikarya or Basidiomycota.
Microbotryum violaceum is a host-specific anther smut (fungus) disease that infects Silene latifolia and sterilizes the host plant. When infected with this disease, the flowers generate pathogenic spores, which can then be transferred to other plants by pollinating insects. Therefore, this disease is sometimes classified as a sexually transmitted infection.
Puccinia sorghi, or common rust of maize, is a species of rust fungus that infects corn and species from the plant genus Oxalis.
