We think about them in a ton of different ways. Fungi can be a delicacy in food or they can be a deadly poison. They are beneficial mutualists with plants or harmful parasitic pests. But there is one more feature of theirs that has become more and more prominent in recent decades with the emergence […]
Sudden death syndrome is, as the name would suggest, a devastating disease. It first emerged in Arkansas in 1971 and has since spread across the US and even into South America by the 1990’s, causing heavy fatalities. The fungus that causes it, Fusarium virguliforme, can be considered the root of one of the most deadly […]
With an ever increasing population and global interaction, trade between nations and people moving to and fro poses distinct risks to biosecurity concerns. Human diseases are obviously top of the list, but because they involve direct contamination by humans themselves with other humans, most medical organizations around the world have numerous measures in place to […]
The modern world has a multitude of issues it is facing, most of which filter through and incorporate agriculture in some fashion. Whether speaking of climate change, overpopulation, deforestation, or any number of other topics, the food supply and how we produce it is involved. For a significant chunk of the countries in the world, […]
We’ve discussed symbiotic relationships before, from the endosymbiosis that bacteria have with plants and fungi to the mutualistic relationships between plants and fungi directly. But those occasional dalliances are nowhere on the scale of what happens with orchids in the family Orchidaceae. The Deadly Life of Orchids Practically all orchids currently known, 28,000 and counting, […]
When dealing with fungi, it is never just the organism itself that is the problem, but also the many mutualistic relationships it has in the soil. In some cases, those relationships are antagonistic and can be used against fungi that attack crops, such as by using specialized mycoviruses. But even in the cases where the […]
Not every tenet of science is set in stone. That’s often been seen in fields like physics and astronomy over the past few decades, where huge innovations and discoveries have been made. But biology isn’t isolated from these sorts of findings. Today’s topic of discussion is new research that calls one of the tenets of […]
Pesticides are a necessity in agriculture. Prior to the use of pesticides in any form, farmers would often find their livelihood under siege by pests from every type, fungi, insect, microbial, and other plants. Yields could drop precipitously from any severe infestation. Plants themselves also agree, with each type of plant producing dozens of pesticides […]
