Erasing the past: a new identity for the Damoclean pathogen causing South American leaf blight of rubber.

ABSTRACT:

Background

South American leaf blight (SALB) of rubber has been the main constraint to production in its neotropical centre of origin since commercial plantations were first established. The fungal causal agent was identified and described more than a century ago but its precise placement within the Ascomycota still remains uncertain. Indeed, such is the ambiguity surrounding the pathogen that each of the spore morphs would, according to their present classification, be placed in different ascomycete families: the Microcyclus sexual morph in the Planistromellaceae and the two purported asexual morphs--Fusicladium and Aposphaeria--in the Venturiaceae and Lophiostomataceae, respectively. Given the historical importance of the fungus and the ever-menacing threat that it poses to rubbe

SUBMITTER: da Hora Junior BT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4134235 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature