Choanephora cucurbitarum

Choanephora cucurbitarum
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Fungi
Order: Mucorales
Family: Choanephoraceae
Genus: Choanephora
Species: C. cucurbitarum
Binomial name
Choanephora cucurbitarum
(Berk. & Ravenel) Thaxt., (1903)
Synonyms


Choanephora americana A. Møller, (1901)
Choanephora heterospora B.S. Mehrotra & M.D. Mehrotra, (1962) [1961]
Choanephora infundibulifera f. cucurbitarum (Berk. & Ravenel) Schipper
Choanephora mandshurica (Saito & H. Nagan.) F.L. Tai, (1934)
Choanephora simsonii D.D. Cunn. [as 'simsoni'], (1895)
Choanephorella cucurbitarum (Berk. & Ravenel) Vuill., (1904)
Cunninghamella mandshurica Saito & H. Nagan., (1915)
Mucor cucurbitarum Berk. & Ravenel, (1875)
Mucor curtus Berk. & M.A. Curtis, (1875)
Rhopalomyces cucurbitarum Berk. & Ravenel, (1875)
Rhopalomyces elegans var. cucurbitarum (Berk. & Ravenel) Marchal, (1893)

The fungus Choanephora cucurbitarum is a plant pathogen that causes fruit and blossom rot of various cucurbits. It can also affect okra, snap bean, and southern pea, and may cause a stem and leaf rot of Withania somnifera. Wet weather, high temperature and high humidity favor disease development from inoculum that is typically soil-borne. Signs of infection on fruits or leaves include water-soaked, necrotic lesions, which progress rapidly under ideal conditions. As the fungus begins to produce spores, affected tissues become dark grey-brown and hairy as a result of the superficial sporangia.

Description

Sporangiophores bearing sporangiola are erect, hyaline, unbranched, and apically dilated to form a clavate vesicle, from which arise dichotomously branched, distally clavate secondary vesicles. The sporangioles are indehiscent, ellipsoid, brown to dark brown with distinct longitudinal striations and measure 12-20μm x 6-12μm. Sporangia are multispored, spherical, initially white to yellow, pale brown to dark brown at maturity and measure 40-160μm. Sporangiospores from sporangia are ellipsoid to broadly ellipsoid, brown to dark brown, indistinctly striate with fine hyaline polar appendages, and measure 16-20 µm x 8-12 µm (Saroj et al. 2012).

References

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