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Corn smut is a disease of maize caused by the pathogenic plant fungus Ustilago maydis. U. maydis causes smut disease on maize (Zea mays) and teosinte (Euchlena mexicana). Although it can infect any part of the plant it usually enters the ovaries and replaces the normal kernels of the cobs with large distorted tumors analogous to mushrooms. These tumors, or "galls", are made up of much-enlarged cells of the infected plant, fungal threads, and blue-black spores. The spores give the cob a burned, scorched appearance. In fact, the name Ustilago comes from the Latin word ustilare (to burn). Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (496x890, 39 KB) Smut on a corn cob. ...
Scientific classification or biological classification is a method by which biologists group and categorize species of organisms. ...
Divisions Chytridiomycota Zygomycota Ascomycota Basidiomycota The Fungi (singular: fungus) are a large group of organisms ranked as a kingdom within the Domain Eukaryota. ...
Classes Subdivision Teliomycotina Urediniomycetes Subdivision Ustilaginomycotina Ustilaginomycetes Subdivision Hymenomycotina Homobasidiomycetes- mushrooms Heterobasidiomycetes- jelly fungi The Division Basidiomycota is a large taxon within the Kingdom Fungi that includes those species that produce spores in a club-shaped structure called a basidium. ...
Ustilaginomycetes is the class of true smut fungi. ...
Ustilaginales is an order of fungi within the class Ustilaginomycetes. ...
Species (Pers. ...
In biology, binomial nomenclature is the formal method of naming species. ...
Corn redirects here. ...
Corn redirects here. ...
species ssp. ...
species ssp. ...
This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...
This article is about a biological reproductive structure; for the video game, see Spore (video game). ...
Considered a pest in most of the United States, smut feeds off the corn plant and decreases the yield. Usually smut-infected crops are destroyed. However in Mexico corn smut is called huitlacoche (IPA /wi.t͡ɬa.ko.t͡ɕe/, sometimes spelled cuitlacoche), and Aztec word reportedly meaning raven's excrement [1] It is considered a delicacy, even being preserved and sold for a higher price than corn. For culinary use, the galls are harvested while still immature — fully mature galls are dry and almost entirely spore-filled. The immature galls, gathered two to three weeks after an ear of corn is infected, still retain moisture and, when cooked, have a flavor described as mushroom-like, sweet, savory, woody, and earthy. Flavor compounds include sotolon and vanillin, as well as the sugar glucose. In agriculture, crop yield (also known as agricultural output) is a measure of the yield per unit area of land under cultivation. ...
For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words see here. ...
Sotolon, also known as sotolone and fenugreek lactone, is an extremely powerful aroma compound with the typical smell of fenugreek and maple syrup. ...
Vanillin, methyl vanillin, or 4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde, is an organic compound with the molecular formula C8H8O3. ...
Glucose (Glc), a monosaccharide (or simple sugar), is the most important carbohydrate in biology. ...
The fungus has had difficulty entering into the American and European diets as most farmers see it as blight, despite attempts by government and high profile chefs. In the mid-1990s and due to demand created by high-end restaurants, Pennsylvania and Florida farms were allowed by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to intentionally infect corn with huitlacoche. Most observers consider the program to have had little impact, although the initiative is still in progress. Regardless, the cursory show of interest is significant because the USDA has spent a considerable amount of time and money trying to eradicate huitlacoche in the United States. Moreover, in 1989 the James Beard Foundation held a high-profile huitlacoche dinner. This dinner famously tried to get Americans to eat more of it by renaming it the Mexican truffle. Official language(s) English, Pennsylvania Dutch Capital Harrisburg Largest city Philadelphia Area Ranked 33rd - Total 46,055 sq mi (119,283 km²) - Width 280 miles (455 km) - Length 160 miles (255 km) - % water 2. ...
Official language(s) English Capital Tallahassee Largest city Jacksonville Largest metro area Miami Area Ranked 22nd - Total 65,795[1] sq mi (170,304[1] km²) - Width 162 miles (260 km) - Length 497 miles (800 km) - % water 17. ...
The United States Department of Agriculture (also called the Agriculture Department, or USDA) is a United States Federal Executive Department (or Cabinet Department). ...
The James Beard Foundation is a New York-based national professional non-profit organization named in honor of James Beard that serves to promote the culinary arts by honoring chefs, wine professionals, journalists, and cookbook authors at annual award ceremonies and providing scholarships and educational opportunities to cooking hopefuls. ...
Huitlacoche grows best during times of drought in a 78°F to 93°F (25°C–34°C) temperature range. Aztecs purposely inoculated corn with the spores by scratching their corn plants at the soil level with a knife—thereby allowing the water-borne spores easy entrance into the plant. The word Aztec is usually used as a historical term, although some contemporary Nahuatl speakers would consider themselves Aztecs. ...
Life cycle
When grown in the lab on very simple media, it behaves like baker's yeast, forming single cells going by the name sporidia. These cells multiply by budding off daughter cells. When two compatible sporidia meet on the surface of the plant, they will switch to a different mode of growth. First, they'll send out conjugation tubes to find each other, after which they fuse and make a hypha to enter the maize plant. Hyphae growing in the plant are dikaryotic; they possess two haploid nuclei per hyphal compartment. In contrast to sporida, the dikaryotic phase of U. maydis requires infection of the plant in order to grow and differentiate and cannot be maintained in the laboratory. Typical divisions Ascomycota Saccharomycotina (true yeasts) Taphrinomycotina Schizosaccharomycetes (fission yeasts) Basidiomycota Basidiomycotina (club fungi) Urediniomycetes Sporidiales Yeasts are unicellular, eukaryotic microorganisms classified in the kingdom Fungi. ...
Drawing of the structure of cork as it appeared under the microscope to Robert Hooke from Micrographia which is the origin of the word cell. Cells in culture, stained for keratin (red) and DNA (green). ...
Hyphae as seen under a log A hypha (plural hyphae) is a long, branching filament found primarily in fungi, but also in fungus-like bacteria such as Actinomyces and Streptomyces. ...
Dikaryon is from Greek, di meaning 2 and karyon meaning nut, refering to the nucleus of the cell. ...
Proliferation of the fungus inside the plant leads to disease symptoms as chlorosis, anthocyanin formation, reduced growth and the appearance of tumors harboring the developing teliospores (Banuett, 1995; Christensen, 1963). In botany, Chlorosis is a condition in which plant foliage produces insufficient chlorophyll. ...
Plants with abnormally high anthocyanin quantities are popular as ornamental plants - here, a selected purple-leaf cultivar of European Beech Anthocyanins (from Greek: (anthos) = flower + (kyanos) = blue) are water-soluble vacuolar flavonoid pigments that appear red to blue, according to pH. They are synthesized exclusively by organisms of the plant...
Mature spores are released from the tumors and spread by rain and wind. Under appropriate conditions a probasidium is formed in which meiosis occurs. Resulting haploid nuclei migrate into elongated single cells. These cells detach from the probasidium; these are the sporidia, completing the life cycle. Basidium is a cell on which the spores of the mushroom are produced. ...
Not to be confused with miosis. ...
Haploid (meaning simple in Greek) cells have only one copy of each chromosome. ...
Drawing of the structure of cork as it appeared under the microscope to Robert Hooke from Micrographia which is the origin of the word cell. Cells in culture, stained for keratin (red) and DNA (green). ...
Basidium is a cell on which the spores of the mushroom are produced. ...
Uses Native Americans of the American Southwest, including the Zuni tribe, have used corn smut to induce labor. It has similar medicinal effects to ergot, but weaker, due to the presence of the chemical ustilagine.[2] The Zuni (also spelled Zuñi) or Ashiwi are a Native American tribe, one of the Pueblo peoples, most of whom live in the Pueblo of Zuñi on the Zuni River, a tributary of the Little Colorado River, in western New Mexico. ...
Species About 50, including: Claviceps africanum Claviceps fusiformis Claviceps paspali Claviceps purpurea Ergot is the common name of a fungus in the genus Claviceps that is parasitic on certain grains and grasses. ...
Model system The yeast-like growth is a big advantage for research, although its relevance in nature is unknown. The fungus is exceptionally well-suited for genetic modification. This allows researchers to study the interaction between fungus and host with relative ease. The availability of the entire genome is another advantage of this fungus as model system. Genetic engineering, genetic modification (GM), and gene splicing (once in widespread use but now deprecated) are terms for the process of manipulating genes in an organism, usually outside of the organisms normal reproductive process. ...
In biology the genome of an organism is the whole hereditary information of an organism that is encoded in the DNA (or, for some viruses, RNA). ...
Ustilago maydis is not only used to study plant disease. It has also been used to study recombination and DNA repair as well. That the function of the breast-cancer gene BRCA2 is now known is largely due to work with Ustilago maydis. Recombination usually refers to the biological process of genetic recombination and meiosis, a genetic event that occurs during the formation of sperm and egg cells. ...
DNA damage resulting in multiple broken chromosomes DNA repair refers to a collection of processes by which a cell identifies and corrects damage to the DNA molecules that encode its genome. ...
For other meanings of this term, see gene (disambiguation). ...
Availability Huitlacoche can be bought as a canned good in some markets and over the net. Some farmers markets and organic growers are endeavoring to bring fresh to their customers and local food service trade. The Troy Community Farm of Madison, Wisconsin started a project in 2003 to grow corn and produce fresh huitlacoche to make available in the Madison area and now sell it directly to the public from their farm stand once a week.[3]
Notes - ^ Gourmet Sleuth: Mexican Corn Truffle
- ^ O'Dowd, Michael J. (2001). The History of Medications for Women. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 1-85070-002-8. p. 410, via Google Books
- ^ Troy Farms Huitlacoche Project
References - McGee, Harold (2004). On Food and Cooking (Revised Edition). Scribner. ISBN 0-684-80001-2. p 349, "Huitlacoche, or Corn Smut".
See also The smuts are fungi, mostly Ustilaginomycetes (of the class Teliomycetae, subphylum Basidiomycota), that cause plant disease. ...
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