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Pest/Pathogen of the Month: February

Scientific name: Fusarium

Common names: Pitch canker fungus, Fusarium crown rot, Fusarium root rot, Fusarium wilt, Fusarium head blight, etc. 

For the month of February, we have selected the genus, Fusarium, as our pathogen of the month. It is also fitting that both February and Fusarium start with an "F". There are a number of economically important Fusarium spp. that cause disease in forestry, agriculture and human health. If you look at the APS list of economically important crops, 81 of the 101 plants listed there are affected by at least one Fusarium disease. Some Fusarium species that infect cereal crops produce toxins, or mycotoxins, that if consumed by humans and animals can lead to diarrhoea, suppression of the immune system, have hormonal and estrogenic effects and cause oesophageal cancer in humans. In forestry, Fusarium circinatum is one of the most destructive diseases of pine that limits what pine species we can plant in South Africa.

 

 

 

New Publications

Dewing C, Yilmaz N, Steenkamp ET, Wingfield BD, Visagie CM. (2025) Capturing the fungal diversity hidden in Eastern Cape dairy pastures. Mycological Progress 24(1):38. 10.1007/s11557-025-02059-2
Nel WJ, Duong TA, Fell S, Herron DA, Paap T, Wingfield MJ, de Beer ZW, Hulcr J, Johnson AJ. (2025) A checklist of South African bark and ambrosia beetles (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae, Platypodinae). Zootaxa 5648(1):1-101. 10.11646/zootaxa.5648.1.1
Dewing C, Yilmaz N, Steenkamp ET, Wingfield BD, Visagie CM. (2025) Capturing the fungal diversity hidden in Eastern Cape dairy pastures. Mycological Progress 24:38. 10.1007/s11557-025-02059-2 PDF
Chang R, Yan Z, Jiang J, Wang Y, Si H, Bose T, Miao C. (2025) Four novel endolichenic fungi from Usnea spp. (Lecanorales, Parmeliaceae) in Yunnan and Guizhou, China: Taxonomic description and preliminary assessment of bioactive potentials. MycoKeys 118:55–80. 10.3897/mycokeys.118.155248
Lötter A, Bruna T, Duong TA, Barry K, Lipzen A, Daum C, Yoshinaga Y, Grimwood J, Jenkins JW, Talag J, Borevitz J, Lovell JT, Schmutz J, Wegrzyn JL, Myburg AA. (2025) A haplotype-resolved reference genome for Eucalyptus grandis. G3 Genes|Genomes|Genetics 10.1093/g3journal/jkaf112