Oomycete plant pathogens: biology, pathogenesis and emerging control strategies.
Wang Y, Govers F, Wang Y
Crop Improvement
Oomycetes cause the kind of plant diseases that rot your tomatoes, wipe out potato crops, and can sweep through gardens and farms — understanding them better means better tools to stop them before they reach your plate.
There's a group of organisms called oomycetes — think of them as distant cousins of fungi — that are responsible for some of the most destructive plant diseases in history, including the one that caused the Irish Potato Famine. They look and act a lot like fungi but are actually completely unrelated, which makes them tricky to fight. Since the late 1990s, scientists have been unlocking their genetic secrets, and what they've found is giving researchers new ideas for smart, targeted ways to stop them from destroying crops.
Key Findings
Oomycetes, though fungus-like in appearance and behavior, evolved independently from fungi — making many antifungal treatments ineffective against them.
The genus Phytophthora alone includes some of the world's most destructive plant pathogens, most famously Phytophthora infestans, the cause of the 19th-century Irish Potato Famine.
Since the late 1990s, advances in genomics and genetic tools have dramatically accelerated understanding of oomycete biology and pathogenicity, uncovering novel mechanisms that could be targeted for disease control.
chevron_right Technical Summary
A group of water-mold-like organisms called oomycetes are among the worst threats to crops worldwide, causing diseases that devastate harvests. Decades of genomic research are now revealing how they attack plants, opening the door to targeted new disease controls.
Abstract Preview
Oomycete plant pathogens are among the most serious global threats to crop production and food security, causing devastating diseases in a wide and diverse range of plant species. Best known are th...
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