Invasive plant diseases frequently attack unexpected new host plants
Schertler A, Lenzner B, Dullinger S, Moser D, García-Rodríguez A
Invasive Species
The fungal disease killing an unusual plant in your garden may be a foreign pathogen that never touched that species back home, and this study explains why some plants are more likely targets.
When a fungal plant disease gets introduced to a new country, it doesn't just infect the same plants it attacked back home. Scientists found that more than half the time, these invasive fungi end up infecting plant species they've never encountered before, especially plants that are closely related to their usual hosts or that grow in the same area. This helps explain why some garden and wild plants get hit by diseases nobody expected, and why tracking where fungal pathogens originally come from matters for predicting future outbreaks.
Key Findings
53% of alien fungal pathogen-plant associations recorded were novel or co-xenic, meaning the pathogen infected a plant it had no prior contact with in its native range
About one-third of the alien pathogens studied showed these novel associations, mostly staying within their known phylogenetic host range
46% of associations couldn't be classified due to gaps in knowledge about pathogen biogeography, and novel associations were more likely with larger introduced ranges, economically valuable co-occurring hosts, and regions with high plant species richness
chevron_right Technical Summary
Invasive fungal plant diseases often jump to new host plants they never encountered in their native range, a global study finds. This 'host-jumping' is common and helps explain why introduced plant pathogens can cause unexpected damage to crops, gardens, and wild plant communities.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Are novel and co-xenic associations common in alien fungal and fungus-like plant pathogens?
Impacts of alien fungal and fungus-like plant pathogens depend on host interactions, including novel associations with native plants and co-xenic associations with alien plants that do not share th...
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