Bipolaris sacchari (original) (raw)

Bipolaris sacchari is a fungal plant pathogen in the family Pleosporaceae. Bipolaris sacchari is an ascomycete fungal pathogen most notably affecting sugarcane. In its sexual stage, it produces spores housed in an ascus (a sac, usually with 8 spores inside). The spores are dispersed when the sac bursts. They spread to plant surfaces via wind and rain splashes, and if there is water present on the leaf, they may germinate and produce septate, walled hyphae on the surface of the leaf. These in turn asexually produce conidia that spread and further propagate the disease.