General symptoms of fungal diseases

included about basic and important symptoms produced by plant pathogenic fungi, and their simple description. this will be helpful to find out the basic symptoms of fungal diseases

1. Symptoms of fungal disease N. H. SHANKAR REDDY 1 st , Ph.D. (Plant Pathology) Annamalai University

2. Rust Infected plants will most of the time have many small lesions on stems or leaves, usually a red, orange to brown in colour Eg - Wheat stem rust – Puccinia graminis tritici

3. Smut Mycelium or black spores on seeds, in the form of galls or entire seeds are replaced by black colour smut spores. Eg – Corn smut - Ustilago maydis

4. Mildews Mycelium, fruiting bodies and necrotic tissue. Powdery Mildews – White colour powder growth appears on surface of leaves and cracking symptoms on fruits (grapes) eg – Grapes Pm – Erysiphe necator Downey Mildews – Downy growth on leaves and mummification of fruits (Grapes) eg – Grapes Dm – Plasmopara viticola

5. Root rots Rot and disintegration of fleshy leaves, roots, tubers and fruit. Dry root rot – Macrophomina phaseolina

6. Blights Rapid generalized browning and death of leaves, floral organs, stems and branches. Eg – Botrytis blight – Botrytis sp

7. Leaf spots localized lesions consisting of necrotic and collapsed tissue. Leaf spots can vary in size and are generally round and concentric. The typical fungal leaf spot will have a “bulls-eye-like” appearance Eg – Alternaria leaf spot – Alternaria solani

8. Wilts Generalized loss of turgidity as in vascular wilts. Eg – Chilli fusarium wilt – Fusarium solani

9. Cankers a localized necrotic lesion on woody tissue, often sunken Eg - Apple European Canker - Nectria galligena

10. Anthracnose an ulcer -like lesion that can be can appear on the fruit, flowers and stems of the host Eg - Mango anthracnose - Colletotrichum gloeosporioides

11. Damping Off A rapid collapse and death of very young seedling. Either the seed rots before emergence or the seedling rots at the soil line and falls over and dies. This is off 2 types, i) pre emergence and ii) post emergence damping off Eg – Damping of vegetables – Pythium aphanidermatum

12. Scab localized lesion on host fruit leaves tubers and other plant parts. Eg – Apple scab – Venturia inaequalis

13. Die back Progressive death of shoots and twigs generally starting at the tip of the infected plant parts Eg - Dieback of Apple – Monilinia sp

14. Galls Enlarged parts of plant organs, usually caused by excessive multiplication or enlargement of plant cells Eg – Club root of cabbage – Plasmodiophora brassicae

15. Leaf Curls Curling, thickening & distortion of leaves Eg – Peach leaf curl – Taphrina deformans