Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?
Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of Graph Search.
Concept
Rhizoctonia solani
Summary
Rhizoctonia solani is a species of fungus in the order Cantharellales. Basidiocarps (fruit bodies) are thin, effused, and web-like, but the fungus is more typically encountered in its anamorphic state, as hyphae and sclerotia. The name Rhizoctonia solani is currently applied to a complex of related species that await further research. In its wide sense, Rhizoctonia solani is a facultative plant pathogen with a wide host range and worldwide distribution. It causes various plant diseases such as root rot, damping off, and wire stem. It can also form mycorrhizal associations with orchids.
In 1858, the German plant pathologist Julius Kühn observed and described a fungus on diseased potato tubers and named it Rhizoctonia solani, the species epithet referring to Solanum tuberosum (potato). The disease caused was well known before the discovery and description of the fungus. In 1956, Dutch mycologist M.A. Donk published the new name Thanatephorus cucumeris for the spore-bearing teleomorph of R. solani, based on the species Hypochnus cucumeris originally described from diseased cucumbers in Germany.
Subsequent research has shown that Rhizoctonia solani is a complex of related species. This was originally based on observing hyphal anastomosis (or lack of it) in paired isolates grown in culture. Successful anastomosis indicated that the isolates were genetically similar, whilst unsuccessful anastomosis indicated they were dissimilar and distinct. As a result Rhizoctonia solani has been split into at least 25 different "anastomosis groups" (AGs) and sub-groups. These AGs tend to be associated with different plant diseases.
Molecular research, based on cladistic analysis of DNA sequences, has largely supported the division of R. solani into AGs.
Following changes to the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants, the practice of giving different names to teleomorph and anamorph forms of the same fungus was discontinued, meaning that Thanatephorus became a synonym of the earlier name Rhizoctonia.
Official source
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.