Strategies for Controlling the Sporulation in Fusarium spp

Abstract

Fusarium species are the most destructive phytopathogenic and toxin-producing fungi, causing serious diseases in almost all economically important plants. Sporulation is an essential part of the life cycle of Fusarium. Fusarium most frequently produces three different types of asexual spores, i.e., macroconidia, chlamydospores, and microconidia. It also produces meiotic spores, but fewer than 20% of Fusaria have a known sexual cycle. Therefore, the asexual spores of the Fusarium species play an important role in their propagation and infection. This review places special emphasis on current developments in artificial anti-sporulation techniques as well as features of Fusarium's asexual sporulation regulation, such as temperature, light, pH, host tissue, and nutrients. This description of sporulation regulation aspects and artificial anti-sporulation strategies will help to shed light on the ways to effectively control Fusarium diseases by inhibiting the production of spores, which eventually improves the production of food plants.

Keywords: Fusarium; anti-sporulation; spore inhibition; sporulation.

Figure 1

Sexual (A) and asexual (B) spores of Fusarium.

Figure 2

Factors affecting induction and inhibition of sporulation.

Figure 3

Long double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs) are transferred to the plants. These are cut into small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) by fungal DCL proteins or plant Dicer-like proteins. The siRNA molecules bind to the complementary sequence of the target mRNA, resulting in its degradation.