Rot

Brown Rot of Potato

Brown rot, also known as bacterial wilt, is one of the most destructive diseases of potato. The disease has been estimated to affect about 3.75 million acres in approximately 80 countries throughout the world with global damage estimates currently over $950 million per year. The disease is known to occur in the wet tropics, sub-tropics and some temperate regions of the world. In the United Stat...

Sheep Foot Rot

How the rot spreads

Here is a biology quiz. Please mark each statement as true (T), false (F) or absurd (A). An absurd statement is one that, in any biological context, has no meaning at all. 1. Ecologists refer to plants as ‘producers’ because plants provide humans with foods, medicines and other commercial goods. 2. A bird has no jawbones. 3. The term ‘genetic engineering’ means selective breeding. 4. The term ‘...

Charcoal Rot of Sorghum

Charcoal rot of sorghum causedby the fungus ~acrophorfdna phaseolina is a root andstalk rot disease of great destructive potential in most sorghum-growing regions. Improved, highyielding cultivars under good management tend to be very susceptible to the disease. M. phaseolina is a common soilborne, nonaggressive, and plurivorous pathogen that attacks plants whose vigor has been reduced by unfav...

Stopping the Rot

In July 2000, the fi nger of blame for a mysterious mass killer of Californian oak trees came to rest on a previously undescribed plant pathogen. From the initial identifi cation of Phytophthora ramorum, it took less than four years to produce a draft sequence of its genome, one of the fastest-ever discovery-to-sequence stories for a complex pathogen. This achievement was a United States initia...