Secrets of the subterranean pathosystem of Armillaria Kendra Baumgartner1, Martin P. A. Coetzee2 and Dirk Hoffmeister3 (1) United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS), University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA. (2) Department of Genetics, Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology (FABI), University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa. (3) Friedrich-Schiller-Universität, Department of Pharmaceutical Biology, Beutenbergstr 11A, D- 07745 Jena, Germany. Kendra Baumgartner Email:
[email protected] Abstract Armillaria root disease affects fruit and nut crops, timber trees and ornamentals in boreal, temperate and tropical regions of the world. The causal pathogens are members of the genus Armillaria (Basidiomycota, Physalacriaceae). This review summarizes the state of knowledge and highlights recent advances in Armillaria research. Taxonomy: Armillaria includes more than 40 morphological species. However, the identification and delineation of species on the basis of morphological characters are problematic, resulting in many species being undetected. Implementation of the biological species' concept and DNA sequence comparisons in the contemporary taxonomy of Armillaria have led to the discovery of a number of new species that are not linked to described morphological species. Host range: Armillaria exhibits a range of symbioses with both plants and fungi. As plant pathogens, Armillaria species have broad host ranges, infecting mostly woody species. Armillaria can also colonize orchids Galeola and Gastrodia but, in this case, the fungus is the host and the plant is the parasite. Similar to its contrasting relationships with plants, Armillaria acts as either host or parasite in its interactions with other fungi. Disease control: Recent research on post-infection controls has revealed promising alternatives to the former pre-plant eradication attempts with soil fumigants, which are now being regulated more heavily or banned outright because of their negative effects on the environment.