Maize Diseases

The fungal pathogens of cultivated maize, or corn, gathered here because maize is host to a distinct set of leaf blight, smut, anthracnose and ear rot pathogens tied to its own growth habit and its standing as the world's most widely grown cereal crop by tonnage. Included are the leaf blight pathogens responsible for major twentieth century epidemics across the American Corn Belt, the smut fungus that replaces developing kernels with galls of fungal spores, and the anthracnose pathogen documented on maize and its close relative sorghum, all of which limit yield and grain quality across maize growing regions worldwide.