Fusarium Wilt - Disease Cycle

Disease Cycle

Fusarium oxysporum is the most widely dispersed of the Fusarium species and is found worldwide. F. oxysporum has no known sexual stage, but produces three types of asexual spores: microconidia, macroconidia, and chlamydospores. The microconidia are the most abundantly produced spores. They are oval, elliptical or kidney shaped and produced on aerial mycelia. Macroconidia, which have three to five cells and have gradually pointed or curved edges, are found on sporodochia on the surface of diseased plant (in culture the sporodochia may be sparse or nonexistent). Chlamydospores are usually formed singly or in pairs, but can sometimes be found in clusters or in short chains. They are round thick walled spores produced within or terminally on an older mycelium or in macroconidia. Chlamydospores unlike the other spores can survive in the soil for a long period of time.

Fusarium oxysporum is a common soil pathogen and saprophyte that feeds on dead and decaying organic matter. It survives in the soil debris as a mycelium and all spore types, but is most commonly recovered from the soil as chlamydospores. This pathogen spreads in two basic ways: it spreads short distances by water splash, and by planting equipment, and long distances by infected transplants and seeds. F. oxysporum infects a healthy plant by means of mycelia or by germinating spores penetrating the plant’s root tips, root wounds, or lateral roots. The mycelium advances intracellularly through the root cortex and into the xylem. Once in the xylem, the mycelium remains exclusively in the xylem vessels and produce microconidia (asexual spores). The microconidia are able to enter into the sap stream and are transported upward. Where the flow of the sap stops the microconidia germinate. Eventually the spores and the mycelia clog the vascular vessels, which prevents the plant from up-taking and translocating nutrients. In the end the plant transpires more than it can transport, the stomata close, the leaves wilt, and the plant dies. After the plant dies the fungus invades all tissues, sporulates, and continues to infect neighboring plants.