As you read in the chapter, the ascomycete fungus that causes chestnut blight an

Question

As you read in the chapter, the ascomycete fungus that causes chestnut blight and has killed an estimated 4 billion chestnut trees in North America was accidentally imported from Asia. More recently, the fungus Duscula destructiva, introduced to eastern North America in the 1980's has killed more than 80% of the eastern dogwood trees in some locations. Why are plants particularly vunerable to fungi imported from other regions? What kinds of human activities might contribute to the spread of plant diseases? Do you think introductions of fungal plant pathogens are more or less likely to occur in the future? Why?

Explanation / Answer

All plants are affected by fungi. There are thousands of kinds of fungi in the soil which play an important role in the chemistry of the soil. Some soil fungi, for example, play a symbiotic role with nodules found on the roots of legumes, whereby the fungus makes nutrients that are normally not usable by the plant available to it, and in exchange, the fungus takes other nutrients from the root nodules. Plants are vulnerable to imported fungi because they do not have any adaptations that allow them to have the proper defenses to fight the fungi and to keep it from infecting the plant. Human activities could include importing foreign plants and travel in general. I believe it will occur more as innovations in transportation will make travel much easier and will open travel to those who previously were unable to travel due to any restrictions.

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