Moniliophthora perniciosa (Stahel) Aime and Phillips-Mora is a hemibiotrophic basidiomycete (Agaricales, Tricholomataceae) that causes witches' broom disease in cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.). This pathogen carries a stable integrated invertron-type linear plasmid in its mitochondrial genome that encodes viral-like DNA and RNA polymerases related to fungal senescence and longevity. After culturing ...

BACKGROUND The research was carried out within the course of two years (2005-2006) in four countries from southern, southeast and eastern parts of Europe: Bulgaria, Italy, Macedonia and Romania. The data are collected mainly from Bulgaria and Italy and are compared with those from Macedonia and Romania. METHODS The information was gathered largely from literature as well as field collected da...