Tilletia caries
| Tilletia caries | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Phylum: | Basidiomycota |
| Class: | Exobasidiomycetes |
| Subclass: | Exobasidiomycetidae |
| Order: | Tilletiales |
| Family: | Tilletiaceae |
| Genus: | Tilletia |
| Species: | T. caries |
| Binomial name | |
|
Tilletia caries (DC.) Tul. & C. Tul., (1847) |
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| Synonyms | |
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Fusisporium inosculans Berk., (1847) |
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Fusisporium inosculans Berk., (1847)
Lycoperdon tritici Bjerk., (1775)
Tilletia tritici (Bjerk.) G. Winter, (1874)
Uredo caries DC., (1815)
Tilletia caries (synonymous with Tilletia tritici) is a basidiomycete that causes common bunt of wheat. The common names of this disease are stinking bunt of wheat and stinking smut of wheat. This pathogen infects wheat, rye, and various other grasses. Tilletia caries is economically and agriculturally important because it reduces both the wheat yield and grain quality.
Infection of the wheat occurs during germination of the plant seed and is favored by cool, wet conditions. Optimum conditions for spore germination are soil temperatures in the range of 5-15 °C (41-59 °F). Bunt fungi overwinter as dikaryotic teliospores typically on seed and occasionally in soil. The fungus infects the shoots of wheat seedlings before the plants emerge from the soil. After karyogamy, the teliospores germinate to form a basidium, on which 8-16 haploid basidiospores (primary sporidia) will develop. There are two mating types of basidiospores (+ and -) and they fuse to form H-shaped structures to establish a dikaryon. This dikaryon then will yield infectious hyphae which can either produce more hyphae or more secondary sporidia. The pathogen grows within the terminal meristem via mycelium and completes its life cycle by transforming the mycelial cells into teliospores. The smutted wheat kernels that are full of teliospores break open and release upon harvest, which allows for the teliospores to overwinter on the seed and are blown away by currents onto the soil, thus completing the life cycle.
Agropyron (wheatgrass), Bromus (bromegrasses), Elymus (wildrye), Festuca (fescues), Hordeum (barleys), Lolium (ryegrasses), Poa (meadow grass), Poaceae (grasses), Secale cereale (rye), Triticale, Triticum (wheat), Triticum aestivum (common wheat), Triticum dicoccum (hulled wheat), Triticum turgidum (durum wheat).
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