Chapter 1
Plant parasite microorganisms
Yu. T. Dyakov, S. V. Zinovyeva
Fungal plant pathogens
General characteristics
Fungi are classified into a separate group of organisms differing from both
plants and animals, primarily by the type of nutrition. Fungi are not autotrophs,
they have no chloroplasts, they can only use the energy stored in organic com-
pounds. This distinguishes fungi from plants. As against animals, fungi are
osmotrophic: they obtain food by absorbing nutrients from the environment.
These feeding features correlate with fungal morphology and physiology.
1. The body of most fungi is made of mycelium consisting of very branched
hyphae. Such a structure allows a maximum occupation of the substrate,
whether it is soil or plant, to extract nutrients. Fungi absorb nutrients by
the entire body.
2. The osmotrophic type of feeding makes a vegetative body plunge fully
into the substrate, which impedes its propagation and occupation of new
substrates. Therefore, in most fungi, spores are brought out above the
substrate in special structures, which in many cases have a complex
arrangement (sporangiophores, conidiophores, and fruit bodies).
Sporiferous structures of endophytic fungi (those developing inside
plants) are released through stomata or breaches in epidermis.
3. Fungi need to use, as energy sources, complex organic compounds that
cannot pass to the cell through cellular covers because of large molecular
weight. Therefore, fungi release the enzymes depolymerases to the envi-
ronment that cause degradation of polymers. Degradation products enter
cells in a dissolved form. Fungi are sources of highly active depolymerases.
4. Fungi need to develop high turgor pressure in the cells to provide
entrainment of nutrient solutions from the substrate to the mycelium.
Both saprotrophic and parasitic fungi feed mostly on plant tissues.
Apparently, the association of fungi and plants developed at the very early stages
of their evolution. The most primitive fungi Chytridiomycetes and Oomycetes
parasitize on the most primitive plants, algae. Some mycologists believe that
fungi came to live on the land under the cover of plants that had come to live
on the land, as their parasites and symbiotes. Symbiotic fungi are also believed
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20 Part 1: Introduction to molecular phytopathology
to have provided adaptation of green plants to life on land. There are almost no
fungi living in symbiosis with animals, while a huge number of fungi live in contin-
uous symbiotic relations with plants. The enzymatic system of fungi is designed to
decompose carbohydrates – structural materials and reserve nutrients of plants. It
is not only parasitic fungi that mainly attack plants, but also saprotrophic fungi
feeding on dead plants, leaving dead animals to bacteria. Dead wood is almost
entirely decomposed by fungi.
System of fungi and fungal plant diseases
The above listed properties of fungi characterize them as an ecotrophic
group, an ecomorph. Phylogenetically, fungi belong to several independent
kingdoms. The differences between them are shown in Table 1.1.
It can be seen from the table that myxomycetes are not fungi by definition,
as they have mixotrophic (mixed) feeding: osmotrophic (as fungi) and
zootrophic (as animals). Their classification among fungi is rather a tradi-
tional approach.
1. Kingdom Myxobiontes includes organisms whose life cycle consists of
several phases. The first phase, amoeboid, is represented by amoebiform
cells, without cell wall, and feeding both osmotrophically on dissolved
organic matter and on separate cells (bacterial, yeast) using endocytosis.
In the second phase, plasmodial ameboids form slimy mass by growth,
coalescence (plasmodium), or coordinated association of individual cells
Table 1.1. Properties of phylogenetically independent taxons including fungi and fungaceous
organisms
Property Eumycetes Oomycetes Myxomycetes
Type of feeding Osmotrophic Osmotrophic Osmotrophic,
zootrophic
Structural carbohydrates Glucan (mannan), chitin Glucan, cellulose Cellulose, chitin
Reserve carbohydrates Glycogen, trehalose, β-glucan (laminarin) Glycogen
polyols
Lysine synthesis Through α-aminiadipate Through Through
diaminopimelate α-aminiadipate
Mitochondrial crista Teniform Tubular Teniform
Sexual process Somatogamy, Oogamy Somatogamy
gametangiogamy Plasmodium,
pseudoplasmodium
Dominating type of Mycelium Mycelium,
thallus
Molecular Kingdom Mycobiontes Kingdom Kingdom
phylogenies Stramenopiles Myxobiontes
Dominating mode Terrestrial Aqueous Terrestrial
of life
