Gaeumannomyces is a genus of fungi in the family Magnaporthaceae.

Gaeumannomyces is a genome of fungi which has a variety of fungal species which primarily infect plant roots and can cause fatal damage to the plant. Gaeumannomyces belong to the family Magnaporthacae and are commonly found in soil microbiome.^[1]

The fungi is commonly known to be residing in soil and wet and moist grasslands.^[2] Due to growing temperatures and climate change, it is expected for the pathogenic effects of Gaeumannomyces to be heightened due to the wetter conditions of soil.

This genome of fungi has very pathogenic tendencies to invade plants. It is known for causing immense crop damage, and sustains life by taking nutrients from other crop. The species Gaeumannomyces tritici, is the most well researched species due to its detrimental behavior towards wheat crop. The G. tritici species has been colloqually termed the take-all root disease, and is extremely dangerous to cereals, barley and rye.^[3]

The take-all disease results in reduced crop growth due to the fungal attack on the roots. While the crop grows, the roots contact the soil microbiome, where the fungus resides on dead crop tissue from previous infections as a mycelium. As the contact is made, the fungus attacks the root and produces hypophodia to enter the root canals and hence take nutrients away from the crop, to sustain itself. Through the infection of a specific root the fungus can attack neighboring plants by root-to-root contact.^[3]

The plant produces carbohydrate active enzymes, particularly a glycoside hydrolase enzyme, which are targeted by the fungus, in order to attack the cellulose and various structures in the cells of the plant in order to inhibit the immune system and promote infection. Such targeting effector proteins diversify in the fungus to evade host immune responses.^[2]

• Gaeumannomyces amomi
• Gaeumannomyces caricis
• Gaeumannomyces cylindrosporus
• Gaeumannomyces graminis
  • Gaeumannomyces graminis var. avenae
  • Gaeumannomyces graminis var. graminis
  • Gaeumannomyces graminis var. maydis
  • Gaeumannomyces graminis var. tritici
• Gaeumannomyces incrustans
• Gaeumannomyces licualae
• Gaeumannomyces medullaris
• Gaeumannomyces mirabilis
• Gaeumannomyces wongoonoo

1. ↑ von Arx, J.A.; Olivier, Dorothea L. (January 1952). "The taxonomy of Ophiobolus graminis Sacc". Transactions of the British Mycological Society. 35 (1): 29–33. doi:10.1016/S0007-1536(52)80005-1.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Okagaki, Laura H.; Sailsbery, Joshua K.; Eyre, Alexander W.; Dean, Ralph A. (December 2016). "Comparative genome analysis and genome evolution of members of the magnaporthaceae family of fungi". BMC Genomics. 17 (1) 135. doi:10.1186/s12864-016-2491-y. ISSN 1471-2164. PMC 4766678. PMID 26911875.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} Palma-Guerrero, Javier; Chancellor, Tania; Spong, Jess; Canning, Gail; Hammond, Jess; McMillan, Vanessa E.; Hammond-Kosack, Kim E. (August 2021). "Take-All Disease: New Insights into an Important Wheat Root Pathogen". Trends in Plant Science. 26 (8): 836–848. doi:10.1016/j.tplants.2021.02.009. PMID 33752966.