About this Research Topic

Background

Fusarium is a large cosmopolitan genus of imperfect fungi that includes a wide spectrum of phylogenetically diverse and widespread fungi. It has a highly complex and often unresolved taxonomy. This is also one of the most important mycotoxigenic fungal genera in food and feed. Fumonisins, zearalenone, and deoxynivalenol trichothecenes are well-known Fusarium mycotoxins. Fusarium species have widespread distribution as they can grow and develop on a wide range of substrates. They also have efficient spore dispersal mechanisms. The genus Fusarium, which contains at least 300 phylogenetically distinct species/species complexes, includes several economically significant phytopathogenic species such as F. oxysporum, F. solani, F. fujikuroi, and F. graminearum. Of these species, F. oxysporum is considered one of the most economically critical worldwide. Since the pathogen can exist in soil and plant debris in the form of mycelia and microsclerotia, and survive as resistant chlamydospores for many years under adverse conditions, management of Fusarium wilt remains a challenge.

Because of the increasing need for long-term strategies for disease minimization preferably by enhancing natural control mechanisms, many key aspects of the disease need to be further investigated. Besides, this pathogen has received significant attention for more than a century. Agronomic practices can only decrease inoculum transmission and do not control disease satisfactorily. Likewise, neither soil fumigation nor fungicide application is recommended. For this reason, it is imperative to find new, effective control alternatives, such as biological control using antagonistic fungi. Disease management and infection control require that these economically destructive fungi be identified accurately and rapidly. However, numerous molecular phylogenetic studies over the past two decades have established that morphological species recognition frequently fails to distinguish many fusaria discovered employing genealogical concordance and phylogenetic species recognition. This Research Topic will give an overview of the latest advances in Fusarium wilt.

Researchers are invited to submit Original Research, Methods, Review, Mini Review, and Perspective manuscripts that provide insights into the biology of both the pathogen and host plant around it. This includes those using 'omics' approaches.

Authors are welcome to submit in the following (but not limited to) areas:

- Advances in pathogen population dynamics;
- Genetic diversity;
- Ecological characteristics;
- Epidemiology and etiology of Fusarium wilt;
- Pathogenicity and virulence mechanisms;
- Biosynthetic pathways;
- Management of Fusarium wilt through rapid diagnostic methods/early detection;
- Soil and crop management, sustainable disease control strategies, agronomic practices, and novel methods for the isolation, identification, and quantification of the causal agent of Fusarium wilt, among other relevant topics.

Please note that purely descriptive studies and Brief Research Reports are not accepted for this collection.

Keywords: fusarium wilt, fungi, genus, mycotoxins, plant disease management

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