''Cochliobolus heterostrophus'' is a

fungal A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from th ...

plant pathogen Plant pathology (also phytopathology) is the scientific study of diseases in plants caused by pathogens (infectious organisms) and environmental conditions (physiological factors). Organisms that cause infectious disease include fungi, oomyc ...

. It can cause

southern corn leaf blight Southern corn leaf blight (SCLB) is a fungal disease of maize caused by the plant pathogen '' Bipolaris maydis'' (also known as '' Cochliobolus heterostrophus'' in its teleomorph state). The fungus is an Ascomycete and can use conidia or asco ...

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...

. ''Cochliobolus heterostrophus'' is found in many tropical regions and in the southern part of the US. ''Cochliobolus'', although not currently the most economically serious disease, can be a very serious crop disease. ''C. heterostrophus'' (race O) was considered a mild pathogen of corn, and was of little worry to those growing maize crops. It was not until the 1970s that ''C. heterostrophus'' (race T) destroyed more than 15% of the U.S. corn crop. Race T differed from race O in the sense that it produced T-toxin (host-selective toxin). The corn planted in the 1970s carried T-cms; T-cms was particularly susceptible to T-toxin. T-toxin is considered to be related to a family of linear

polyketide Polyketides are a class of natural products derived from a precursor molecule consisting of a chain of alternating ketone (or reduced forms of a ketone) and methylene groups: (-CO-CH2-). First studied in the early 20th century, discovery, biosynth ...

s. This organism's appeal among genetic analysts lends itself to the organism's superior tractability when "homologous recombination between transforming DNA and target genomic sequences" takes place. This "facilitates functional analysis by site-specific gene deletion."

References

Fungal plant pathogens and diseases Maize diseases Cochliobolus Fungi described in 1925 {{fungus-plant-disease-stub