Fungus that threatens chocolate forgoes sexual reproduction for cloning
Tuesday, March 22, 2016 - 14:40
in Biology & Nature
A fungal disease that poses a serious threat to cacao plants -- the source of chocolate -- reproduces clonally, researchers find. The fungus causes frosty pod rot, a disease that has decimated cacao plantations through much of the Americas. Because it belongs to a group of fungi that produces mushrooms -- the fruit of fungal sex -- many researchers and cacao breeders believed the fungus reproduced sexually.