Molecular Plant Pathology (2008) 9, 729-740

Niklaus J. Grünwald, Erica M. Goss and Caroline M. Press (2008)
Phytophthora ramorum: a pathogen with a remarkably wide host range causing sudden oak death on oaks and ramorum blight on woody ornamentals
Molecular Plant Pathology 9 (6), 729-740
Abstract: Phytophthora ramorum is an oomycete plant pathogen classified in the kingdom Stramenopila. P. ramorum is the causal agent of sudden oak death on coast live oak and tanoak as well as ramorum blight on woody ornamental and forest understorey plants. It causes stem cankers on trees, and leaf blight or stem dieback on ornamentals and understorey forest species. This pathogen is managed in the USA and Europe by eradication where feasible, by containment elsewhere and by quarantine in many parts of the world. Genomic resources provide information on genes of interest to disease management and have improved tremendously since sequencing the genome in 2004. This review provides a current overview of the pathogenicity, population genetics, evolution and genomics of P. ramorum.
Taxonomy: Phytophthora ramorum (Werres, De Cock and Man in't Veld): kingdom Stramenopila; phylum Oomycota; class Peronosporomycetidae; order Pythiales; family Pythiaceae; genus Phytophthora.
Host range: The host range is very large and the list of known hosts continues to expand at the time of writing. Coast live oak and tanoak are ecologically, economically and culturally important forest hosts in the USA. Rhododendron, Viburnum, Pieris, Syringa and Camellia are key ornamental hosts on which P. ramorum has been found repeatedly, some of which have been involved in moving the pathogen via nursery shipments.
Disease symptoms: P. ramorum causes two different diseases with differing symptoms: sudden oak death (bleeding lesions, stem cankers) on oaks and ramorum blight (twig dieback and/or foliar lesions) on tree and woody ornamental hosts.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Link to article at publishers website
Database assignments for author(s): Niklaus J. Grünwald

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
review

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Phytophthora ramorum	Oak (Quercus)
	Phytophthora ramorum	Tanoak (Notholithocarpus)