Verticillium

Verticillium is a genus of fungi in the division Ascomycota, and are an anamorphic form of the Plectosphaerellaceae family. The genus used to include diverse groups comprising saprobes and parasites of higher plants, insects, nematodes, mollusc eggs and other fungi thus it can be seen that the genus used to have a wide ranging group of taxa characterised by simple but ill-defined characters. The genus, currently thought to contain 51 species, may be broadly divided into three ecologically based groups 1) mycopathogens 2) entomopathogens (Zare and Gams, 2001) and 3) plant pathogens and related saprotrophs (Barbara and Clewes, 2003). However, recently the genus has undergone some revision into which most entomopathogenic and mycopathogenic isolates fall into a new group called Lecanicillium. The genus now includes the plant pathogenic species V. dahliae, V. albo-atrum, V. nubilium, and V. tricorpus.