Fungi --> Ascomycota --> Sorderiomycetes
Fungi --> Ascomycota --> Sorderiomycetes
Direct, One host: the ant species Camponotus leonardi
Fungal spores latch onto the cuticle (outer skin) of ants of the target species. Spores then secrete enzymes that digest the exoskeleton so that growth inside the host can begin. Behavioral manipulation causes the ant to fall to the forest floor, climb to a leaf, and bite the large, central vein of the leaf in a "death grip." The fungus continues consuming the ant's innards until a spore-producing stalk grows out from the ant's neck.
Definitive host ants live in tree canopies and at higher elevations than ideal for fungus growth, so the fungus can only grow once it has manipulated the ant's behavior and made it seek out a lower, damp place where it can hang from a leaf.
Ant hosts are endemic to tropical rainforest regions, as is the fungus that infects them. Infection most often occurs in forests in Thailand, Brazil, Central America, and Africa.
Direct, necrotrophic pathogen of a single host: Chestnut trees
Spores infect exposed wounds or growth cracks in bark. Spores germinate and a lesion is formed. Spores reproduce sexually and asexually (outcrossing and self-fertilization occur variably) to form pustules partly imbedded in dead bark. Fruiting bodies release sticky asexual conidia spores when the environment is moist, and they are dispersed by rain, water or animals. Sexual fruiting bodies release wind-dispersed, two-celled ascospores.
Yong‐chao Han, Xiang‐guo Zeng, Cong Guo, Qing‐hua Zhang, Feng‐ying Chen, Li Ren, Wei‐dong Chen, Li Qin, Reproduction response of Colletotrichum fungi under the fungicide stress reveals new aspects of chemical control of fungal diseases, Microbial Biotechnology, 10.1111/1751-7915.13754, 0, 0, (2021).
Successful transmission depends on natural occurrences or weather conditions that disperse spores and enable them to reach exposed wounds on Chestnut trees. Among these trees, C. parasitica causes chestnut blight.
Chestnut blight has spread throughout and decimated many North American and European chestnut tree populations since its introduction from Asia, where it is endemic, in the late 19th century.