Oomycete and fungal pathogens threaten food, fiber, and forests around the world. With climate change, these pathogens are expected to emerge more frequently. Evolution can facilitate their emergence through mechanisms such as mutations that change or expand host range. Characterizing evolutionary mechanisms in plant pathogens will contribute to our ability...
Sudden oak death is caused by the clonally reproducing generalist oomycete Phytophthora ramorum. The pathogen can infect more than 130 different plant hosts including Quercus spp., Larix kaempferi, and Notholithocarpus densiflorus, as well as common nursery genera such as Rhododendron and Camelia, where it causes symptoms ranging from bleeding cankers...
Diseases can be a substantial threat to woody plant production, a major industry in Oregon. Boxwood (Buxus spp.) and rhododendron (Rhododendron subgenus Rhododendron and Hymenanthes) represent the top two broadleaf evergreen woody plants by farmgate value in Oregon. Historically, Phytophthora root rot has been considered the most destructive disease of...
Oomycetes are an important group of organisms with a variety of ecological roles similar to fungi. Although many are well-studied plant pathogens known for their devastating effects on agricultural systems, most are little-studied saprobes and parasites of plants and animals in nearly every ecosystem on earth. The advent of affordable...
Plant pathogens in the genus Phytophthora are known to cause disease on field crops, nursery plants, and forest trees. The best known example probably is Phytophthora infestans, which triggered the infamous Irish potato famine. Other important Phytophthora species include: P. ramorum (sudden oak death pathogen), P. sojae (soybean root rot...
Mosses (Phylum Bryophyta) are widely considered to be among the most ancient groups of land plants (embryophytes) and they are the second most speciose embryophyte phylum with ~13,000 extant species. Despite their diversity and antiquity, mosses have a limited fossil record, which primarily consists of gametophytes entombed in Cenozoic amber....
Modern plant pathology benefits from integrating methods and concepts from evolutionary biology. For example, evolutionary concepts are used to identify and examine species boundaries of plant pathogens, recognize processes underlying pathogen biogeography, identify traits that characterize emerging species, and discover new molecular interactions that originate under processes of selection. In...