Soil inhabitants |
Soil invaders / Root inhabiting fungi |
1. These are unspecialized parasites with a wide host range that are able to survive indefinitely in the soil as saprophytes. |
1. These are more specialized parasites that survive in soils in close association with their hosts. |
2. Soil inhabitants include obligate saprophytes and facultative parasites, they are exo-pathogens. |
2. Soil invaders include facultative saprophytes which are endo-pathogens (root infecting fungi). |
3. Soil and plant debris serve as media for their saprophytic survival. |
3. The active saprophytic phase remains as long as the host tissue in which they were living as parasites is not completely decomposed. |
4. They have high competitive saprophytic survival ability. |
4. They have low competitive saprophytic survival ability. |
5. Species of Pythium, Rhizoctonia,Sclerotium, etc., survive as soil inhabitor considerable length of time in absence of the host. |
5. Most plant pathogenic fungi and bacteria are soil invaders. Many tants vascular wilt causing species of Fusarium,Verticillium, etc., are soil invaders. |