FUSARIUM
Genus
Fusarium
Species

Fusarium solani, Fusarium oxysporum, and Fusarium chlamydosporum

Description

Most characteristic are the colourless spores (conidia), which are canoe-shaped in side view, have a distinct "foot cell" at the lower end, and are divided by several cross-walls. The conidiophores are often clustered to form sporodochia and produce large pasty masses of spores from tapered phialides. Two other spore forms may occur, microconidia (a) resembling spores and phialides of Acremonium, and chlamydospores (b), thick-walled swellings along the filaments.

Morphological definition

The color of the colony may be white, cream, tan, salmon, cinnamon, yellow, red, violet, pink, or purple. From the reverse, it may be colorless, tan, red, dark purple, or brown.
A sclerotium, which is the organized mass of hyphae that remains dormant during unfavorable conditions, may be observed macroscopically and is usually dark blue in color. On the other hand, sporodochium, the cushion-like mat of hyphae bearing conidiophores over its surface, is usually absent in culture.

Availability

Common in soil and dead or living plants

Function

causing plant disease, Phosphate solubilizer

Nucleotide, Protein Sequences & 3D Structures