Preserving the Biologically Coherent Generic Concept of Phytophthora, "Plant Destroyer"

Clive M Brasier¹, Niklaus J Grünwald², Tyler B Bourret³, Francine Govers⁴, Bruno Scanu⁵, David E L Cooke⁶, Tanay Bose⁷, David L Hawksworth⁸, Z Gloria Abad⁹, M Victoria Albarracin¹⁰, Wael Alsultan¹¹, Astrid E Altamirano-Junqueira¹², Arild R Arifin¹³, Matthew J Arnet¹⁴, Herbert Dustin R Aumentado¹⁵, József Bakonyi¹⁶, Wei H Belisle¹⁷, Alessandra Benigno¹⁸, John C Bienapfl¹⁹, Guillaume J Bilodeau²⁰, Jaime E Blair²¹, Leticia Botella²², Andrea Brandano⁵, Santa Olga Cacciola²³, Ignazio Carbone²⁴, Vanina L Castroagudin¹⁹, Narayanan Chaendaekattu²⁵, Jonathan D Consford²⁶, Tamara Corcobado²⁷, Paul A Covey²⁸, Hazel A Daniels²⁹, Antonio Deidda⁵, Anne E Dorrance³⁰, Erika N Dort³¹, André Drenth³², Fryni Drizou³³, Edouard Evangelisti³⁴, Sebastian N Fajardo³⁵, Yufeng Fang³⁶, Christopher M Ference³⁷, Susan J Frankel³⁸, Erica M Goss³⁹, David I Guest⁴⁰, Giles E S J Hardy⁴¹, Anna R H Harris¹, Mehari Desta Hawku⁴², Kurt Heungens⁴³, Chuanxue Hong⁴⁴, Ian J Horner¹⁴, Marília Horta Jung²², Olumayowa J Iyanda⁴⁵, Brittney-Aidan Jamieson⁷, Steven N Jeffers⁴⁶, Howard S Judelson⁴⁷, Muhammad Junaid⁴⁸, Eleni Kalogeropoulou⁴⁹, Sophien Kamoun⁵⁰, Seogchan Kang⁵¹, Takao Kasuga⁵², Tomáš Kudláček^{22

53}, Jared LeBoldus^{54

55}, Christopher A Lee⁵⁶, DeWei Li⁵⁷, Alejandro K Llanos⁵⁸, Horacio D Lopez-Nicora⁵⁹, Helena Machado⁶⁰, Gaetano Magnano di San Lio⁶¹, Cristiana Maia⁶², Kajal Mandal^{63

64}, Patricia Manosalva⁴⁷, Frank N Martin⁶⁵, Michael E H Matson⁶⁶, Rebecca L McDougal²⁹, John M McDowell⁶⁷, Richard W Michelmore⁶⁸, Ivan Milenković^{22

69}, Salvatore Moricca¹⁸, Reza Mostowfizadeh-Ghalamfarsa⁷⁰, Zoltán Á Nagy²², Ekaterina V Nikolaeva⁷¹, Paula Ortega-López⁷², Trudy Paap⁷, Camilo H Parada-Rojas⁵⁴, Francesca Peduto Hand⁵⁸, Ana Pérez-Sierra⁷³, Martin Pettersson⁷⁴, Pramod Prasad⁷⁵, Alina S Puig⁷⁶, Milica Raco⁵⁴, Nasir A Rajput⁷⁷, Jean B Ristaino²⁴, Suzanne Rooney-Latham¹⁷, Michael F Seidl⁷⁸, Simon F Shamoun⁷⁹, Alejandro Solla⁸⁰, Christoffel F J Spies⁸¹, Martha A Sudermann⁵⁴, Tedmund J Swiecki⁸², Miaoying Tian⁸³, Sucheta Tripathy^{63

64}, Seiji Uematsu⁸⁴, Kris Van Poucke⁴³, Aikaterini E Vichou⁴⁹, Monika Walter¹⁴, Joan F Webber¹, Nari M Williams¹⁴, Michael J Wingfield⁷, Dhananjay Yadav⁸⁵, Xiao Yang⁸⁶, Thomas Jung²²

Affiliations

¹ Forest Research, Alice Holt Lodge, Farnham, GU10 4LH, Surrey, U.K.
² Horticultural Crops Disease and Pest Management Research Unit, U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service, Corvallis, OR 97330, U.S.A.
³ Mycology and Nematology Genetic Diversity and Biology Laboratory, U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service, Beltsville, MD 20705, U.S.A.
⁴ Laboratory of Phytopathology, Wageningen University and Research, 6708 PB Wageningen, the Netherlands.
⁵ Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Sassari, 07100 Sassari, Italy.
⁶ The James Hutton Institute, Invergowrie, Dundee, DD2 5DA, U.K.
⁷ Department of Biochemistry, Genetics, and Microbiology, Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI), University of Pretoria, Hatfield, Pretoria 0082, South Africa.
⁸ Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, TW9 3AB, U.K.
⁹ U.S. Department of Agriculture-PPQ Science & Technology, McDonough, GA 30252, U.S.A.
¹⁰ U.S. Department of Agriculture-APHIS, Plant Protection and Quarantine. Permitting and Compliance Coordination, Riverdale, MD 20737, U.S.A.
¹¹ MK Agronomy B.V., Roelofarendsveen, the Netherlands.
¹² University of São Paulo, Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture. Av. Pádua Dias, 11-Agronomia, Piracicaba-SP, 13418-900, Brazil.
¹³ Washington State University, Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center, Wenatchee, WA 98801, U.S.A.
¹⁴ The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Limited, Havelock North 4157, New Zealand.
¹⁵ Center of Excellence in Fungal Research, Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai 57100, Thailand.
¹⁶ Plant Protection Institute, HUN-REN Centre for Agricultural Research, Fehérvári út 132-144, H-1116 Budapest, Hungary.
¹⁷ California Department of Food and Agriculture, Plant Pest Diagnostics Center, Sacramento, CA 95832, U.S.A.
¹⁸ Department of Agricultural, Food, Environmental and Forest Sciences and Technologies (DAGRI), Plant Pathology and Entomology Division, University of Florence, Firenze 50144, Italy.
¹⁹ U.S. Department of Agriculture-APHIS-PPQ Science and Technology, Plant Pathogen Confirmatory Diagnostics Laboratory, Laurel, MD 20708, U.S.A.
²⁰ Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Ottawa Laboratory Fallowfield, Ottawa Plant Laboratory, Ottawa K2J 4S1, Canada.
²¹ Franklin & Marshall College, Department of Biology, Lancaster, PA 17603, U.S.A.
²² Department of Forest Protection and Wildlife Management, Phytophthora Research Centre, Mendel University in Brno, 613 00 Brno, Czech Republic.
²³ Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment (Di3A), University of Catania, 100-95123 Catania, Italy.
²⁴ Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, U.S.A.
²⁵ Rubber Research Institute of India, Kottayam 686009, India.
²⁶ Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM 88003, U.S.A.
²⁷ Austrian Research Centre for Forests (BFW), Department of Forest Protection, Unit of Phytopathology, 1130 Vienna, Austria.
²⁸ Cargill, Fort Collins, CO 80525, U.S.A.
²⁹ Scion Research (New Zealand Forest Research Institute Limited), Rotorua 3010, New Zealand.
³⁰ Department of Plant Pathology, The Ohio State University, Wooster, OH 43210, U.S.A.
³¹ Department of Forest & Conservation Sciences, Faculty of Forestry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada.
³² The University of Queensland, Centre for Horticultural Science, Brisbane, Australia.
³³ Institute of Mediterranean Forest Ecosystems, Hellenic Agricultural Organisation-Dimitra, Terma Alkmanos, 11528 Athens, Greece.
³⁴ Institut Sophia Agrobiotech, UMR INRAE 1355, CNRS 7254, Université Côte d'Azur Sophia Antipolis, France.
³⁵ Department of Plant Pathology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, U.S.A.
³⁶ GreenLight Biosciences Inc., Durham, NC 27709, U.S.A.
³⁷ U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center, Hilo, HI 96720, U.S.A.
³⁸ U.S. Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station, Vallejo, CA 94592, U.S.A.
³⁹ Department of Plant Pathology and Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, U.S.A.
⁴⁰ Sydney Institute of Agriculture, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
⁴¹ Harry Butler Institute, Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA 6150, Australia.
⁴² Department of Crop Sciences, College of Agriculture, Animal Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, University of Rwanda, Musanze, Rwanda.
⁴³ Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food (ILVO), Merelbeke 9820, Belgium.
⁴⁴ Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Virginia Beach, VA 23455, U.S.A.
⁴⁵ Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti Department of Agricultural Sciences, College of Sciences, Ado-Ekiti 5454, Nigeria.
⁴⁶ Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634, U.S.A.
⁴⁷ Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, U.S.A.
⁴⁸ Cocoa Research Group, Faculty of Agriculture, Hasanuddin University, Kampus Unhas Tamalanrea, 90245 Makassar, Indonesia.
⁴⁹ Benaki Phytopathological Institute, Scientific Directorate of Phytopathology, Laboratory of Mycology, Athens 14561, Greece.
⁵⁰ The Sainsbury Laboratory, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7UH, U.K.
⁵¹ Department of Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, U.S.A.
⁵² U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, U.S.A.
⁵³ University of Greifswald, Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science & Center for Functional Genomics of Microbes, 17489 Greifswald, Germany.
⁵⁴ The Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, The Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, U.S.A.
⁵⁵ The Forest Engineering, Resources and Management Department, The Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, U.S.A.
⁵⁶ California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, Trinidad, CA 95570, U.S.A.
⁵⁷ The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station Valley Laboratory, Windsor, CT 06095, U.S.A.
⁵⁸ Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina, Lima 12, Peru.
⁵⁹ Department of Plant Pathology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, U.S.A.
⁶⁰ Instituto Nacional de Investigação Agrária e Veterinária I.P. Av. da República, Quinta do Marquês, 2780-159 Oeiras, Portugal.
⁶¹ University Mediterranea of Reggio Calabria, Department of Agriculture, 89124 Reggio Calabria, Italy.
⁶² Centre of Marine Sciences (CCMAR), Universidade do Algarve, Campus de Gambelas, 8005-139 Faro, Portugal.
⁶³ CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Kolkata 700032, India.
⁶⁴ CSIR-Human Resource Development Centre, Ghaziabad 201002, India.
⁶⁵ U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service, Crop Improvement and Protection Research Unit, Salinas, CA 93905, U.S.A.
⁶⁶ Mars Incorporated, Davis, CA 95616, U.S.A.
⁶⁷ School of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, U.S.A.
⁶⁸ The Genome Center, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, U.S.A.
⁶⁹ University of Belgrade, Faculty of Forestry, 11030 Belgrade, Serbia.
⁷⁰ Department of Plant Protection, School of Agriculture, Shiraz University, Shiraz 7144113131, Iran.
⁷¹ Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, Harrisburg, PA 17110, U.S.A.
⁷² Real Jardín Botánico (RJB-CSIC), 28014 Madrid, Spain.
⁷³ Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Agrarias Carretera, 46113 Moncada, Valencia, Spain.
⁷⁴ Division of Biotechnology and Plant Health, Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO), Ås 1431, Norway.
⁷⁵ ICAR-Indian Institute of Wheat & Barley Research, Regional Station, Flowerdale, Shimla 171002, India.
⁷⁶ U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service Foreign Disease-Weed Science Research Unit, Frederick, MD 21702, U.S.A.
⁷⁷ Department of Plant Pathology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad 38000, Pakistan.
⁷⁸ Theoretical Biology & Bioinformatics, Utrecht University, 3584CH Utrecht, Netherlands.
⁷⁹ Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service Pacific Forestry Centre, Victoria, BC V8Z 1M5, Canada.
⁸⁰ Universidad de Extremadura, Faculty of Forestry, 10600 Plasencia, Spain.
⁸¹ Agricultural Research Council - Plant Health and Protection, Stellenbosch 7599, South Africa.
⁸² Phytosphere Research, Vacaville, CA 95687, U.S.A.
⁸³ Department of Plant Pathology, University of Georgia, Tifton, GA 31794, U.S.A.
⁸⁴ Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Department of Bioregulation and Bio-interaction, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Tokyo 183-8509, Japan.
⁸⁵ East West Seed International, Village Rambha, Indri, Nilokheri 132117, India.
⁸⁶ Plant and Pest Diagnostic Clinic, Department of Plant Industry, Clemson University, Pendleton, SC 29670, U.S.A.

PMID: 40072242
DOI: 10.1094/PHYTO-11-24-0372-LE

Free article

Preserving the Biologically Coherent Generic Concept of Phytophthora, "Plant Destroyer"

Clive M Brasier et al. Phytopathology. 2025 Jun.

Free article

. 2025 Jun;115(6):573-586.

doi: 10.1094/PHYTO-11-24-0372-LE. Epub 2025 Jun 21.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Forest Research, Alice Holt Lodge, Farnham, GU10 4LH, Surrey, U.K.
² Horticultural Crops Disease and Pest Management Research Unit, U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service, Corvallis, OR 97330, U.S.A.
³ Mycology and Nematology Genetic Diversity and Biology Laboratory, U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service, Beltsville, MD 20705, U.S.A.
⁴ Laboratory of Phytopathology, Wageningen University and Research, 6708 PB Wageningen, the Netherlands.
⁵ Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Sassari, 07100 Sassari, Italy.
⁶ The James Hutton Institute, Invergowrie, Dundee, DD2 5DA, U.K.
⁷ Department of Biochemistry, Genetics, and Microbiology, Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI), University of Pretoria, Hatfield, Pretoria 0082, South Africa.
⁸ Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, TW9 3AB, U.K.
⁹ U.S. Department of Agriculture-PPQ Science & Technology, McDonough, GA 30252, U.S.A.
¹⁰ U.S. Department of Agriculture-APHIS, Plant Protection and Quarantine. Permitting and Compliance Coordination, Riverdale, MD 20737, U.S.A.
¹¹ MK Agronomy B.V., Roelofarendsveen, the Netherlands.
¹² University of São Paulo, Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture. Av. Pádua Dias, 11-Agronomia, Piracicaba-SP, 13418-900, Brazil.
¹³ Washington State University, Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center, Wenatchee, WA 98801, U.S.A.
¹⁴ The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Limited, Havelock North 4157, New Zealand.
¹⁵ Center of Excellence in Fungal Research, Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai 57100, Thailand.
¹⁶ Plant Protection Institute, HUN-REN Centre for Agricultural Research, Fehérvári út 132-144, H-1116 Budapest, Hungary.
¹⁷ California Department of Food and Agriculture, Plant Pest Diagnostics Center, Sacramento, CA 95832, U.S.A.
¹⁸ Department of Agricultural, Food, Environmental and Forest Sciences and Technologies (DAGRI), Plant Pathology and Entomology Division, University of Florence, Firenze 50144, Italy.
¹⁹ U.S. Department of Agriculture-APHIS-PPQ Science and Technology, Plant Pathogen Confirmatory Diagnostics Laboratory, Laurel, MD 20708, U.S.A.
²⁰ Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Ottawa Laboratory Fallowfield, Ottawa Plant Laboratory, Ottawa K2J 4S1, Canada.
²¹ Franklin & Marshall College, Department of Biology, Lancaster, PA 17603, U.S.A.
²² Department of Forest Protection and Wildlife Management, Phytophthora Research Centre, Mendel University in Brno, 613 00 Brno, Czech Republic.
²³ Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment (Di3A), University of Catania, 100-95123 Catania, Italy.
²⁴ Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, U.S.A.
²⁵ Rubber Research Institute of India, Kottayam 686009, India.
²⁶ Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM 88003, U.S.A.
²⁷ Austrian Research Centre for Forests (BFW), Department of Forest Protection, Unit of Phytopathology, 1130 Vienna, Austria.
²⁸ Cargill, Fort Collins, CO 80525, U.S.A.
²⁹ Scion Research (New Zealand Forest Research Institute Limited), Rotorua 3010, New Zealand.
³⁰ Department of Plant Pathology, The Ohio State University, Wooster, OH 43210, U.S.A.
³¹ Department of Forest & Conservation Sciences, Faculty of Forestry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada.
³² The University of Queensland, Centre for Horticultural Science, Brisbane, Australia.
³³ Institute of Mediterranean Forest Ecosystems, Hellenic Agricultural Organisation-Dimitra, Terma Alkmanos, 11528 Athens, Greece.
³⁴ Institut Sophia Agrobiotech, UMR INRAE 1355, CNRS 7254, Université Côte d'Azur Sophia Antipolis, France.
³⁵ Department of Plant Pathology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, U.S.A.
³⁶ GreenLight Biosciences Inc., Durham, NC 27709, U.S.A.
³⁷ U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center, Hilo, HI 96720, U.S.A.
³⁸ U.S. Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station, Vallejo, CA 94592, U.S.A.
³⁹ Department of Plant Pathology and Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, U.S.A.
⁴⁰ Sydney Institute of Agriculture, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
⁴¹ Harry Butler Institute, Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA 6150, Australia.
⁴² Department of Crop Sciences, College of Agriculture, Animal Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, University of Rwanda, Musanze, Rwanda.
⁴³ Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food (ILVO), Merelbeke 9820, Belgium.
⁴⁴ Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Virginia Beach, VA 23455, U.S.A.
⁴⁵ Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti Department of Agricultural Sciences, College of Sciences, Ado-Ekiti 5454, Nigeria.
⁴⁶ Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634, U.S.A.
⁴⁷ Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, U.S.A.
⁴⁸ Cocoa Research Group, Faculty of Agriculture, Hasanuddin University, Kampus Unhas Tamalanrea, 90245 Makassar, Indonesia.
⁴⁹ Benaki Phytopathological Institute, Scientific Directorate of Phytopathology, Laboratory of Mycology, Athens 14561, Greece.
⁵⁰ The Sainsbury Laboratory, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7UH, U.K.
⁵¹ Department of Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, U.S.A.
⁵² U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, U.S.A.
⁵³ University of Greifswald, Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science & Center for Functional Genomics of Microbes, 17489 Greifswald, Germany.
⁵⁴ The Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, The Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, U.S.A.
⁵⁵ The Forest Engineering, Resources and Management Department, The Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, U.S.A.
⁵⁶ California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, Trinidad, CA 95570, U.S.A.
⁵⁷ The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station Valley Laboratory, Windsor, CT 06095, U.S.A.
⁵⁸ Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina, Lima 12, Peru.
⁵⁹ Department of Plant Pathology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, U.S.A.
⁶⁰ Instituto Nacional de Investigação Agrária e Veterinária I.P. Av. da República, Quinta do Marquês, 2780-159 Oeiras, Portugal.
⁶¹ University Mediterranea of Reggio Calabria, Department of Agriculture, 89124 Reggio Calabria, Italy.
⁶² Centre of Marine Sciences (CCMAR), Universidade do Algarve, Campus de Gambelas, 8005-139 Faro, Portugal.
⁶³ CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Kolkata 700032, India.
⁶⁴ CSIR-Human Resource Development Centre, Ghaziabad 201002, India.
⁶⁵ U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service, Crop Improvement and Protection Research Unit, Salinas, CA 93905, U.S.A.
⁶⁶ Mars Incorporated, Davis, CA 95616, U.S.A.
⁶⁷ School of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, U.S.A.
⁶⁸ The Genome Center, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, U.S.A.
⁶⁹ University of Belgrade, Faculty of Forestry, 11030 Belgrade, Serbia.
⁷⁰ Department of Plant Protection, School of Agriculture, Shiraz University, Shiraz 7144113131, Iran.
⁷¹ Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, Harrisburg, PA 17110, U.S.A.
⁷² Real Jardín Botánico (RJB-CSIC), 28014 Madrid, Spain.
⁷³ Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Agrarias Carretera, 46113 Moncada, Valencia, Spain.
⁷⁴ Division of Biotechnology and Plant Health, Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO), Ås 1431, Norway.
⁷⁵ ICAR-Indian Institute of Wheat & Barley Research, Regional Station, Flowerdale, Shimla 171002, India.
⁷⁶ U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service Foreign Disease-Weed Science Research Unit, Frederick, MD 21702, U.S.A.
⁷⁷ Department of Plant Pathology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad 38000, Pakistan.
⁷⁸ Theoretical Biology & Bioinformatics, Utrecht University, 3584CH Utrecht, Netherlands.
⁷⁹ Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service Pacific Forestry Centre, Victoria, BC V8Z 1M5, Canada.
⁸⁰ Universidad de Extremadura, Faculty of Forestry, 10600 Plasencia, Spain.
⁸¹ Agricultural Research Council - Plant Health and Protection, Stellenbosch 7599, South Africa.
⁸² Phytosphere Research, Vacaville, CA 95687, U.S.A.
⁸³ Department of Plant Pathology, University of Georgia, Tifton, GA 31794, U.S.A.
⁸⁴ Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Department of Bioregulation and Bio-interaction, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Tokyo 183-8509, Japan.
⁸⁵ East West Seed International, Village Rambha, Indri, Nilokheri 132117, India.
⁸⁶ Plant and Pest Diagnostic Clinic, Department of Plant Industry, Clemson University, Pendleton, SC 29670, U.S.A.

PMID: 40072242
DOI: 10.1094/PHYTO-11-24-0372-LE

Abstract

Phytophthora is a long-established, well-known, and globally important genus of plant pathogens. Phylogenetic evidence has shown that the biologically distinct, obligate biotrophic downy mildews evolved from Phytophthora at least twice. Because, cladistically, this renders Phytophthora "paraphyletic," it has been proposed that Phytophthora evolutionary clades be split into multiple genera (Crous et al. 2021; Runge et al. 2011; Thines 2023, 2024). In this letter, we review arguments for the retention of the generic name Phytophthora with a broad circumscription made by Brasier et al. (2022) and by many delegates at an open workshop organized by The American Phytopathological Society. We present our well-considered responses to the genus splitting proposals, both in general terms and in terms of the specific proposals for new genera, alongside new information regarding the biological properties and mode of origin of the Phytophthora clades. We consider that the proposals are mostly non-rigorous and not supported by the scientific evidence. Further, given (i) the apparent lack of any distinguishing biological characteristics (synapomorphies) between the Phytophthora clades; (ii) the fundamental monophyly of Phytophthora in the original Haeckelian sense (Haeckel 1877); (iii) the fact that paraphyly is not a justification for taxonomic splitting; and (iv) the considerable likely damage to effective scientific communication and disease management from an unnecessary breakup of the genus, we report that workshop delegates voted unanimously in favor of preserving the current generic concept and for seeking endorsement of this view by a working group of the International Commission on the Taxonomy of Fungi. [Formula: see text] Copyright © 2025 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.

Keywords: Pangea; clades; cladistics; disease management; downy mildews; oomycetes; paraphyly; phylogeny; plant biosecurity; scientific communication; taxonomy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The author(s) declare no conflict of interest.

Publication types

Actions

MeSH terms

Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources
- Atypon

Save citation to file

Email citation

Add to Collections

Add to My Bibliography

Your saved search

Create a file for external citation management software

Your RSS Feed

Preserving the Biologically Coherent Generic Concept of Phytophthora, "Plant Destroyer"

Affiliations

Preserving the Biologically Coherent Generic Concept of Phytophthora, "Plant Destroyer"

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Conflict of interest statement

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources