The Triumph of the Fungi: A Rotten History PDF
Preview The Triumph of the Fungi: A Rotten History
The Triumph of the Fungi This page intentionally left blank The Triumph of the Fungi A Rotten History NICHOLAS P. MONEY 2007 OxfordUniversityPress,Inc.,publishesworksthatfurther OxfordUniversity'sobjectiveofexcellence inresearch,scholarship, andeducation. OxfordNewYork AucklandCapeTownDaresSalaamHongKongKarachi KualaLumpurMadridMelbourneMexicoCityNairobi NewDelhiShanghaiTaipeiToronto Withofficesin ArgentinaAustriaBrazilChileCzechRepublicFranceGreece GuatemalaHungaryItalyJapanPolandPortugalSingapore SouthKoreaSwitzerlandThailandTurkeyUkraineVietnam Copyright©2007byOxfordUniversityPress, Inc. PublishedbyOxfordUniversityPress,Inc. 198MadisonAvenue,NewYork,NewYork10016 www.oup.com OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem,or transmitted,inanyform orbyanymeans, electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recording,orotherwise, withoutthepriorpermissionofOxfordUniversityPress. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Money,NicholasP. Thetriumphofthefungi:arottenhistory/ NicholasP. Money. p.cm. Includesindex. ISBN-13978–0–19–518971–1 ISBN0–19–518971–X 1.Fungaldiseasesofplants—History. 2.Fungi—History. I.Title. SB733.M59 2006 632′.4—dc222005037223 987654321 For Adam, my stepson This page intentionally left blank Preface This book is concerned with the most devastating fungal diseases in history. These are the plagues of trees and crop plants, causedbyinvisiblesporesthathavereshaped entirelandscapes anddecimatedhumanpopulations. Everyoneis aware of the Irish potato famine, but while many other fungal diseases are less familiar, they have had similarly disastrous consequences. TheTriumphoftheFungifocuses onthefascinating biology ofthewell-knownand lesser-known diseases.Italsotellsthestoriesofthescientistsinvolvedintheirstudyandofthepeopledirectlyaffectedbythelossof forest trees includingthe chestnut, and cash crops such as coffeeand cacao. Although a book about fungal epidemics isn'ttailor-madefor an intoxicatingand uplifting read, thechronicleofthemycologistsand plantpathologists engaged in combatting these diseases is one of human optimism (often encouraged by desperate eccentricity). In a surprisingly brieftime,humanknowledgeofthefungithatinfectplantshasevolvedfromBiblicalsuperstitiontotherecognitionof the true nature of plant disease and, more recently, to a sense of awe for the sophistication of these organisms. The crucial issue of human culpability in these fungal epidemics is addressed in the book's closing chapter. A note about the titleof the book seems appropriate. In the second year of World War II, the engineer, novelist,and plant pathologist Ernest C. Large published a marvelous book, The Advance of the Fungi (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1940). Large introduced scientists to thestudy of plant diseases witha refreshing mixture of technical rigor peppered with humorous asides. The Advance of the Fungi served as the introduction to fungal biology for many of the plantpathologiststhatstaffed universitydepartments andgovernment-fundedlaboratories throughoutthesecond half of the twentieth century. A second book, Mushrooms and Toadstools (London: Collins, 1953), published in 1953 by John Ramsbottom, served viii as a similarly good-humored and inspiring source for mycologists. Ramsbottom's book served as a model (albeit unconsciously)for myfirst book, Mr.Bloomfield'sOrchard(NewYork: Oxford UniversityPress, 2002).Thefocusofboth works, separated by a half-century of discoveries, was on topics such as fungal growth and mushroom function. In similar fashion, TheTriumphoftheFungi updates Large's classic by offering a personal viewof the continuing advance of the fungi in the last 65 years and by revisiting the history of the scientific study of plant disease. IthinkthatLargewouldapproveofthenewtitle.Since1940, fungihavecontinuedtheiradvance,attacking everycrop plantthatwecultivate,andexploitingnewhostswhereversporesareintroduced.Throughtheircontinuedadvance,the fungi have proven unstoppable. Fungi are the most important cause of plant disease and cause billions of dollars of crop losses every year. Despite fantastically effective fungicides, the continual development of resistant varieties of crops, and theimplementationof techniques of genetic modification,blights, rusts, and rots abound. After more than a century of concerted scientific effort, epidemics like potato blight, chestnut blight, and Dutch elm disease remain incurable. The best we can do is to continue the expensive fight to limit the negative consequences of fungal activity throughout the biosphere. On a more positive note, biologists have been successful in documenting the essential nature of our varied interactions with fungi. It is clear that we would find the planet uninhabitable without fungi. The presentation of the epidemic diseases in TheTriumphoftheFungi does not followtheir historical appearance nor the history of their recognition by humans. Instead, the book opens with the story of chestnut blight, the fungal disease that reshaped the forests of the eastern United States in the twentieth century (chapter 1). It is difficult for us to appreciate the overwhelming impact of this disease for the simple reason that few of us were born early enough to have seen a giant American chestnut. (Incidentally, 2006 is the 100th anniversary of the first description of the blight fungus.)Chapter2describesanequallydestructivefungusthatannihilatedelmtreesafewyearsaftertheappearanceof chestnut blight. More than any other fungal epidemic, Dutch elm disease has changed the appearance of villages, towns, and cities in Europe and North America. Chapters 3, 4, and 5 address fungal epidemics of three tropical commodity crops: coffee, cacao, and rubber. These diseases are united by the spread of plantation ix agriculture by European colonists in the nineteenth century, and they illustrate the extreme vulnerability of monoculture agriculture tofungal attack. Theorigins ofthescientific study of plant diseases are addressed in chapters 6 and 7, beginning with the attempted placation of the Roman mildew god, to seventeenth-century experiments on plant diseases and the eventual development of the branch of science called plant pathology. The diseases that were responsiblefor thebirth of plant pathology werethesmuts and rusts of cereal crops (chapter6) and the potato blight pathogen that caused the Irish famine (chapter 7). The final chapter (chapter 8) explores the future of the ongoing competition between humans and fungi for control of the biosphere. The fossil record shows that fungi have livedin intimateassociationswithplantsfor thelast400millionyears.Althoughmanyoftheearliestfungiengagedinmutually supportiverelationships with land plants, others were probably attacking plants in the Silurian mud in much the same way pathogens do today. But although there may be nothing truly novel about emerging epidemic diseases such as sudden oak death, this perspective does little to alleviate concern about the future health of forests or the effects of fungionagriculture.Ihopethatyou'llenjoymytakeonthestoriesinthisbookas muchas Ihaverelished delvinginto this rich archive of microbiology.
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