August 26, 2007

B. fuckeliana

While searching for information about the evolution and molecular biology of homothallism in fungi, I ran across what might be the most unfortunately-named model organism ever. It's a phytopathogen named Botryotinia fuckeliana, which is really the sexual form of Botrytis cinerea. That makes sense, I suppose...

I don't know how the specific fuckeliana was chosen, but I suspect it has something to do with the first reaction of farmers upon finding the fungus growing on their fruit crops. It's frequently a parasite on grapes which grow on a vine, and "liana" is fairly close in meaning.

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