Fusarium culmorum
Encyclopedia
Fusarium culmorum is a plant pathogen and the causal agent of seedling blight, foot rot, ear blight, stalk rot, common root rot
and other diseases of cereals, grasses, and a wide variety of monocots and dicots. In coastal dunegrass (Leymus mollis), F. culmorum is a non-pathogenic symbiont conferring both salt and drought tolerance to the plant.
Colonies grow rapidly. Aerial mycelium is whitish to yellow, tan or pale orange, but become brown to dark brown to red-brown with age. Under alternating conditions of light and temperature, rings of spore masses may be formed by some isolates.
Microconidia
Macroconidia
Chlamydospores
Common root rot (wheat)
Common root rot is a disease of wheat caused by one or more fungi. Cochliobolus sativus , Fusarium culmorum and F. graminearum are the most common pathogens responsible for common root rot.-Symptoms:...
and other diseases of cereals, grasses, and a wide variety of monocots and dicots. In coastal dunegrass (Leymus mollis), F. culmorum is a non-pathogenic symbiont conferring both salt and drought tolerance to the plant.
Identification
Growth on PDAColonies grow rapidly. Aerial mycelium is whitish to yellow, tan or pale orange, but become brown to dark brown to red-brown with age. Under alternating conditions of light and temperature, rings of spore masses may be formed by some isolates.
Microconidia
- Absent
Macroconidia
- Abundance: Usually abundant.
- Sporodochia: Orange to brown color and relatively common
- Morphology: Thick and bluntly pointed at their apex. Conspicuously wider above the center of the spore. The dorsal side is somewhat curved, but the ventral side is almost straight. Distinguishing character from F. sambucinum is the broader macroconidia.
- Size: Range from 4 to 7 μm wide and from 25 to 50 μm long. Number of septa: Usually 3- or 5-septate
- Development: Develop singly from phialides (5 x 15-20 μm). They are loose at first and are later aligned in sporodochia.
Chlamydospores
- Abundance/Speed of formation: Usually abundant and form relatively quickly, requiring 3–5 weeks on CLA.
- Location: In hyphae and macroconidia. Those found in the macroconidia persist longer than those found in the hyphae under field conditions.
- Morphology: Thick-walled, globose.
- Appearance: Found singly, in clumps or chains.
- Size: 9-14 μ m in diameter.