''Microbotryum violaceum'', also known as the anther smut fungus, was formerly known as ''Ustilago violacea''. It is a

Basidiomycete Basidiomycota () is one of two large divisions that, together with the Ascomycota, constitute the subkingdom Dikarya (often referred to as the "higher fungi") within the kingdom Fungi. Members are known as basidiomycetes. More specifically, Ba ...

obligate parasite of many

Caryophyllaceae Caryophyllaceae, commonly called the pink family or carnation family, is a family of flowering plants. It is included in the dicotyledon order Caryophyllales in the APG III system, alongside 33 other families, including Amaranthaceae, Cactacea ...

. But it has now separated into many species due to its host specificity.

Meiosis Meiosis (; , since it is a reductional division) is a special type of cell division of germ cells in sexually-reproducing organisms that produces the gametes, such as sperm or egg cells. It involves two rounds of division that ultimately r ...

in ''M. violaceum'' produces a tetrad of four haploid meiotic products. Pairwise intra-tetrad mating can occur between these meiotic products.Hood ME, Antonovics J. Intratetrad mating, heterozygosity, and the maintenance of deleterious alleles in Microbotryum violaceum (=Ustilago violacea). Heredity (Edinb). 2000 Sep;85 Pt 3:231-41.

Examples

''M. violaceum'' can infect and sterilize the plant species '' Silene latifolia'' by acting like a sexually transmitted infection.

References

External links

Microbotryum violaceum database

Index Fungorum

USDA ARS Fungal Database

Fungal plant pathogens and diseases Ustilaginomycotina Fungi described in 1797 Taxa named by Christiaan Hendrik Persoon {{fungus-plant-disease-stub