| Disease Introduction Mechanism | Fusarium solani severely threatens agricultural productivity worldwide due to reducing plant crops’ nutrients and harvest, resulting in tremendous economic losses. It causes root rots of its host by penetrating plant cell walls and destroying the torus. Fusarium solani is a common soil fungus of a complex of more than twenty-six closely related filamentous fungi in the Nectriaceae family. It is found in ponds, rivers, sewage facilities, water pipes, larvae and adults of the picnic beetle, and a symbiote of the ambrosia beetle. It infects plants through developing plant roots to produce asexual macro- and microconidia dispersed through wind and rain. Morphologically, Fusarium solani is unique because, unlike most Fusarium species that form a pink or violet centre when cultured, it forms white and cottony colonies with a blue-green or bluish brown colour. It is a common cause of diseases in plants such as peas, beans, potatoes, olive, soybeans, and many types of cucurbits and humans, resulting in either mycoses or the infection of the eye cornea. It can result in plant decline, wilting, and necrosis in plant roots. |
