Study finds corn genome can gang up on multiple pathogens at once

In a changing climate, corn growers must be ready for anything, including new and shifting disease dynamics. Because it's impossible to predict which damaging disease will pop up in a given year, corn with resistance to ...

Tracking down pathogenic yeasts

If the human immunological system is weakened, yeast fungi that are normally harmless can be transformed into a lethal danger. This is why researchers at Fraunhofer are using next-generation sequencing to track down one of ...

Uncovering the genome secrets of the Blackleg fungus

The genome of the Blackleg fungus, which causes the most damaging disease to canola crops worldwide, has been sequenced for the first time by a team of French and Australian scientists.

Fungal genome offers clues on how leaf-cutter ants farm

Leaf-cutter ants are well-known examples of insects that use microbes to gain access to nutrients, farming "gardens" in which bacteria and fungi break down plant mass. In an article featured on the cover of the June 2013 ...

Researchers supply significant genomic insight into tar spot on corn

First reported in 2015, tar spot is an emerging disease on corn that has rapidly spread across the United States and Canada, causing tremendous yield loss estimated at $1.2 billion in 2021 alone. Tar spot gets its name from ...

Fungi can change quickly, pass along infectious ability

Fungi have significant potential for "horizontal" gene transfer, a new study has shown, similar to the mechanisms that allow bacteria to evolve so quickly, become resistant to antibiotics and cause other serious problems.

Spotlighting differences in closely-related species

There are millions of fungal species, and those few hundred found in the Aspergillus genus play important roles in areas ranging from industrial production to agricultural plant pathogens. Reported October 22, 2018, in Nature ...

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