Pathogenic fungi have diverse growth lifestyles that support fungal colonization on plants.
Successful colonization and infection for all lifestyles depends upon the ability to modify …

This article provides an overview of sexual reproduction in the ascomycetes, a phylum of
fungi that is named after the specialized sacs or “asci” that hold the sexual spores. They …

This communication describes the establishment of the type II bacterial CRISPR–Cas9
system to efficiently disrupt target genes in the fungal maize pathogen Ustilago maydis. A …

Small, secreted proteins have been found to play crucial roles in interactions between
biotrophic/hemi-biotrophic pathogens and plants. However, little is known about the roles of …

Fungal secretome consists of various functional groups of proteins, many of which
participate in nutrient acquisition, self-protection, or manipulation of the environment and …

Smut fungi are plant pathogens mostly parasitizing wild species of grasses as well as
domesticated cereal crops. Genome analysis of several smut fungi including Ustilago …

The biotrophic basidiomycete fungus Ustilago maydis causes smut disease in maize.
Hallmarks of the disease are large tumors that develop on all aerial parts of the host in which …

One major threat to global food security that requires immediate attention, is the increasing
incidence of host shift and host expansion in growing number of pathogenic fungi and …

Due to their economic relevance, the study of plant pathogen interactions is of importance.
However, elucidating these interactions and their underlying molecular mechanisms …

Sporisorium scitamineum is the causal agent of sugarcane smut, which is one of the most
serious constraints to global sugarcane production. S. scitamineum and Ustilago maydis are …