Choanephora cucurbitarum
| Choanephora cucurbitarum | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Order: | Mucorales |
| Family: | Choanephoraceae |
| Genus: | Choanephora |
| Species: | C. cucurbitarum |
| Binomial name | |
| Choanephora cucurbitarum (Berk. & Ravenel) Thaxt., (1903) | |
| Synonyms | |
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The fungus Choanephora cucurbitarum is a plant pathogen that causes fruit and blossom rot of various cucurbits. It can also affect okra, snap bean, and southern pea, and may cause a stem and leaf rot of Withania somnifera. Wet weather, high temperature and high humidity favor disease development from inoculum that is typically soil-borne. Signs of infection on fruits or leaves include water-soaked, necrotic lesions, which progress rapidly under ideal conditions. As the fungus begins to produce spores, affected tissues become dark grey-brown and hairy as a result of the superficial sporangia.
Description
Sporangiophores bearing sporangiola are erect, hyaline, unbranched, and apically dilated to form a clavate vesicle, from which arise dichotomously branched, distally clavate secondary vesicles. The sporangioles are indehiscent, ellipsoid, brown to dark brown with distinct longitudinal striations and measure 12-20μm x 6-12μm. Sporangia are multispored, spherical, initially white to yellow, pale brown to dark brown at maturity and measure 40-160μm. Sporangiospores from sporangia are ellipsoid to broadly ellipsoid, brown to dark brown, indistinctly striate with fine hyaline polar appendages, and measure 16-20 µm x 8-12 µm (Saroj et al. 2012).
External links
- APS: Choanephora fruit rot on squash. APS publication number IW00007.
- Index Fungorum
- USDA ARS Fungal Database
References
- P. M. Kirk. Mycol. Pap. 152:1, 1984.
- A. Saroj, A. Kumar, N. Qamar, M. Alam, H.N. Singh and A. Khaliq. 2012. First report of wet rot of Withania somnifera caused by Choanephora cucurbitarum in India. Plant Disease 96(2): 293.2. doi:10.1094/PDIS-09-11-0801