Abstracts of Special Session Presentations

Diseases of Plants
Retropathology: Disease for Control of Weeds

Host range of Fusarium oxysporum; too narrow, too broad, or just right? A. PILGERAM. Montana State University, Bozeman, MT. Phytopathology 95:S126. Publication no. P-2005-0041-SSA.

Fusarium oxysporum as a species of plant pathogen has been reported on several hundred different hosts. Hence individual strains of this pathogen are often mistakenly assumed to be broad host range pathogens jumping from flower bed to flower bed at will, like some Casanova. In fact, individual strains of F. oxysporum have narrow host ranges, basically limited to a single species or subspecies or even a few cultivars of the host plant. This pathogen is easily cultured and manipulated in the laboratory and survives in soil for long periods providing long-term control of its target plant. A useful characteristic of this pathogen is its saprophytic ability to colonize non-host seedling root systems without observable symptoms. This feature permits the use of F. oxysporum inoculated non-host seeds as an inexpensive dissemination method.

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