Ustilaginales

Ustilaginales
Huitlacoche
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Fungi
Phylum: Basidiomycota
Subphylum: Ustilaginomycotina
Class: Ustilaginomycetes
Order: Ustilaginales
(G. Winter 1880)[1] Bauer & Oberwinkler 1997[2]
Families

Anthracoideaceae
Cintractiellaceae
Clintamraceae
Geminaginaceae
Melanopsichiaceae
Uleiellaceae
Ustilaginaceae
Websdaneaceae

The Ustilaginales are an order of fungi within the class Ustilaginomycetes. The order contains 8 families, 49 genera, and 851 species.[3]

Ustinaginales is also known and classified as the "smut fungi". They are serious plant pathogens, with only the dikaryotic stage being obligately parasitic.

Morphology

Has a thick-walled resting spore (teliospore), known as the "brand" (burn) spore or chlamydospore.

Economic importance

They can infect corn plants (Zea mays) producing tumor-like galls that render the ears unsaleable. This corn smut, is also known as huitlacoche and sold canned for consumption in Latin America.

See also

References

Notes
  1. Winter G. (1880). Rabenhorsts Kryptogamen-Flora von Deutschland, Oesterreich und der Schweitz, Vol. 1 (in German). Leipzig: E. Kummer. p. 73. (as "Ustilagineae")
  2. Bauer, R. et al. (1997). "Ultrastructural markers and systematics in smut fungi and allied taxa.". Canadian Journal of Botany 75: 1311. doi:10.1139/b97-842.
  3. Kirk MP, Cannon PF, Minter DW, Stalpers JA. (2008). Dictionary of the Fungi. 10th edition. Wallingford: CABI. p. 716–17. ISBN 0-85199-826-7.
Bibliography