Fungus that threatens chocolate forgoes sexual reproduction for cloning
A fungal disease that poses a serious threat to cacao plants - the source of chocolate - reproduces clonally, Purdue University researchers find.
The fungus Moniliophthora roreri causes frosty pod rot, a disease that has decimated cacao plantations through much of the Americas. Because M. roreri belongs to a group of fungi that produces mushrooms - the fruit of fungal sex - many researchers and cacao breeders believed the fungus reproduced sexually.
But a study by Purdue mycologists Catherine Aime and Jorge Díaz-Valderrama shows that M. roreri generates billions of cocoa pod-destroying spores by cloning, even though it has two mating types - the fungal equivalent of sexes - and seemingly functional mating genes.
The findings could help improve cacao breeding programs and shed light on the fungal mechanisms that produce mushrooms.
"This fungus is phenomenally unusual - it has mating types but doesn't undergo sexual reproduction," said Díaz-Valderrama, doctoral student in mycology. "This knowledge is biologically and economically valuable as we seek better insights into how mushrooms come about and how we can reduce this disease's damage to the cocoa industry."
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-03-fungus-threatens-chocolate-forgoes-sexual.html#jCp
