Rust (fungus) - Life Cycle

Life Cycle

All rusts are obligate parasites, meaning that they require a living host to complete their life cycle. They generally do not kill the host plant but can severely reduce growth and yield. Cereal crops can be devastated in one season and trees that get infected in the main stem within the first five years, invariably die.

Rust fungi can also be categorized by their life cycle. Heteroecious rust fungi require two unrelated hosts to complete their life cycle, with the primary host being infected by aeciospores and the alternate host being infected with basidiospores. This can be contrasted with an autoecious fungus which can complete its life cycle on a single host species.

Read more about this topic:  Rust (fungus)

Famous quotes containing the words life and/or cycle:

    In ‘70 he married again, and I having, voluntarily, assumed the legal guilt of breaking my marriage contract, do cheerfully accept the legal penalty—a life of celibacy—bringing no charge against him who was my husband, save that he was not much better than the average man.
    Jane Grey Swisshelm (1815–1884)

    Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song,
    A medley of extemporanea;
    And love is a thing that can never go wrong;
    And I am Marie of Roumania.
    Dorothy Parker (1893–1967)