Preserving the Biologically Coherent Generic Concept of Phytophthora, ‘Plant Destroyer’.

Brasier, Clive M.; Grünwald, Niklaus J.; Bourret, Tyler B.; Govers, Francine; Scanu, Bruno; Cooke, David E. L.; Bose, Tanay; Hawksworth, David L.; Abad, Z. Gloria; Albarracin, M. Victoria; Alsultan, Wael; Altamirano-Junqueria, Astrid E.; Arifin, Arild R.; Arnet, Matthew J.; Aumentado, Herbert Dustin R.; Bakonyi, József; Belisle, Wei H.; Benigno, Alessandra; Bienapfl, John C.; Bilodeau, Guillaume J.

Preserving the Biologically Coherent Generic Concept of Phytophthora, ‘Plant Destroyer’.

Resource type

Journal article

Creator (person)

Brasier, Clive M.

Grünwald, Niklaus J.

Bourret, Tyler B.

Govers, Francine

Scanu, Bruno

Cooke, David E. L.

Bose, Tanay

Hawksworth, David L.

ORCID

Abad, Z. Gloria

Albarracin, M. Victoria

Alsultan, Wael

Altamirano-Junqueria, Astrid E.

Arifin, Arild R.

Arnet, Matthew J.

Aumentado, Herbert Dustin R.

Bakonyi, József

Belisle, Wei H.

Benigno, Alessandra

Bienapfl, John C.

Bilodeau, Guillaume J.

Blair, Jaime E.

Botella, Leticia

Brandano, Andrea

Cacciola, Santa Olga

Carbone, Ignazio

Castroagudin, Vanina L.

Chaendaekattu, Narayan

Consford, Jonathan D.

Corcobado, Tamara

Covey, Paul A.

Daniels, Hazel A.

Deidda, Antonia

Dorrance, Anne E.

Dort, Erika N.

Drenth, Andre

Drizou, Fryni

Evangelisti, Edouard

Fajardo, Sebastian N.

Fang, Yufeng

Ference, Christopher M.

Frankel, Susan J.

Goss, Erica M.

Guest, David I.

Hardy, Giles E. St. J.

Harris, Anna R. H.

Hawku, Mehari Desta

Heungens, Kurt

Hong, Chuanxue

Horner, Ian J.

Horta Jung, Marília

Iyanda, Olumayowa J.

Jamieson, Brittney-Aidan

Jeffers, Steven N.

Judelson, Howard S.

Junaid, Muhammad

Kalogeropoulou, Eleni

Kamoun, Sophien

Kang, Seogchan

Kasuga, Takao

Kudláček, Tomáš

LeBoldus, Jared

Lee, Christopher A.

Li, DeWei

Llanos, Alejandro K.

Lopez-Nicora, Horacio D.

Machado, Helena

Maia, Cristiana

Mandal, Kajal

Manosalva, Patricia

Martin, Frank N.

Matson, Michael E. H.

McDougal, Rebecca L.

McDowell, John M.

Michelmore, Richard W.

Milenković, Ivan

Moricca, Salvatore

Mostowfizadeh-Ghalamfarsa, Reza

Nagy, Zoltán Á.

Nikolaeva, Ekaterina V.

Ortega-López, Paula

Paap, Trudy

Parada-Rojas, Camilo H.

Peduto Hand, Francesca

Perez-Sierra, Ana

Pettersson, Martin

Prasad, Pramod

Puig, Alina S.

Raco, Milica

Rajput, Nasir A.

Ristaino, Jean B.

Rooney-Latham, Suzanne

Seidl, Michael F.

Shamoun, Simon F.

Solla, Alejandro

Spies, Christoffel F. J.

Sudermann, Martha A.

Swiecki, Tedmund J.

Tian, Miaoying

Tripathy, Sucheta

Uematsu, Seiji

Van Poucke, Kris

Vichou, Aikaterini E.

Walter, Monika

Webber, Joan F.

Williams, Nari M.

Wingfield, Michael J.

Yadav, Dhananjay

Yang, Xiao

Jung, Thomas

Date published

March 12, 2025

Abstract

Phytophthora is a long-established, well known and globally important genus of plant pathogens. Phylogenetic evidence has shown that the biologically distinct, obligate biotrophic downy mildews evolved from Phytophthora at least twice. Since, cladistically, this renders Phytophthora ‘paraphyletic’, it has been proposed that Phytophthora evolutionary clades be split into multiple genera (Runge et al. 2011; Crous et al. 2021; Thines et al. 2023; Thines 2024). In this letter, we review arguments for the retention of the generic name Phytophthora with a broad circumscription made by Brasier et al. (2022) and by many delegates at an open workshop organized by the American Phytopathological Society. We present our well-considered responses to this proposal in general terms and to the specific proposals for new genera; together with new information regarding the biological properties and mode of origin of the Phytophthora clades. We consider that the proposals for new genera are mostly non-rigorous and not supported by the scientific evidence. Further, given (1) the apparent lack of any distinguishing biological characteristics (synapomorphies) between the Phytophthora clades; (2) the fundamental monophyly of Phytophthora in the original Haeckelian sense; (3) the fact that paraphyly is not a justification for taxonomic splitting; and (4) the considerable likely damage to effective scientific communication and disease management from an unnecessary break-up of the genus, we report that Workshop delegates voted unanimously in favour of preserving the current generic concept and for seeking endorsement of this view by a working group of the International Commission on the Taxonomy of Fungi.