Fungal Genomics Challenges the Dogma of Name-Based Biosecurity

Résumé

Microorganisms have inadvertently been spread via the global movement and trade of their substrates, such as animals, plants, and soil.This intercontinental exchange in the current era of globalisation has given rise to significant increases in the distribution of known pests and pathogens.Importantly, it has also resulted in many novel, emerging, infectious diseases.Biosecurity and quarantine, which aim to prevent the establishment of foreign or harmful organisms in a non-native area, are under significant pressure due to the massive increases in travel and trade.Traditionally, quarantine regulations have been implemented based on pathogens that already cause significant disease problems on congener hosts in other parts of the world (e.g., Q-bank, available at http://www.q-bank.eu).Well-known pathogens are described, named, and studied to determine their disease cycle, epidemiology, and impact.Their importance is assessed based on their risk of infection, establishment, and economic or environmental consequences.This then shapes phytosanitary practices.The central dogma of biosecurity proportions risk and focuses resources on known and named pathogens.This practice overlooks emerging pests and diseases that are increasingly spread around the world.Challenging this central dogma for biosecurity of fungi and fungallike organisms is long overdue for the following reasons.Firstly, in fungi, the rate of species discovery outpaces taxonomy, and naming of new taxa is not inherently accompanied by biological information.There are as many as three million (or more) fungal species in the world, and, of these, only 80,000 have been described [1].Thus, a dogma that focuses on the described, well-known species overlooks the remainder and ignores their biosecurity significance.There are numerous examples of novel fungal and fungal-like pathogens that have caused major problems in environments with naïve hosts or monocultures in exotic locations.Some examples include Cronartium ribicola (white pine blister rust), Ophiostoma novo-ulmi (Dutch elm disease), Phytophthora pinifolia, and Phytophthora ramorum (sudden oak death).Secondly, there is ongoing disagreement over the definition of species and use of taxonomic names.The dogma of biosecurity hinges on the application of a name, but this relies on a robust and accepted taxonomy.A recent example of this problem concerns an incursion of Puccinia psidii (rust of Myrtaceae), which was wrongly identified as a less severe, but closely

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