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-Junqueira, 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”.

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Letter to the editor

Creator (person)

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

ORCID

Altamirano-Junqueira, Astrid E.

Arifin, Arild R.

Arnet, Matthew J.

Aumentado, Herbert Dustin R.

Bakonyi, József

Belisle, Wei H.

ORCID

Benigno, Alessandra

Bienapfl, John C.

Bilodeau, Guillaume J.

Blair, Jaime E.

Botella, Leticia

Brandano, Andrea

Cacciola, Santa Olga

Carbone, Ignazio

Castroagudin, Vanina L.

ORCID

Chaendaekattu, Narayanan

Consford, Jonathan D.

Corcobado, Tamara

Covey, Paul A.

ORCID

Daniels, Hazel A.

ORCID

Deidda, Antonio

Dorrance, Anne E.

ORCID

Dort, Erika N.

Drenth, André

ORCID

Drizou, Fryni

Evangelisti, Edouard

Fajardo, Sebastian N.

Fang, Yufeng

Ference, Christopher M.

Frankel, Susan J.

Goss, Erica M.

ORCID

Guest, David I.

ORCID

Hardy, Giles E. S. J.

Harris, Anna R. H.

Hawku, Mehari Desta

Heungens, Kurt

Hong, Chuanxue

Horner, Ian J.

Jung, Marília Horta

ORCID

Iyanda, Olumayowa J.

Jamieson, Brittney-Aidan

Jeffers, Steven N.

Judelson, Howard S.

Junaid, Muhammad

ORCID

Kalogeropoulou, Eleni

Kamoun, Sophien

Kang, Seogchan

ORCID

Kasuga, Takao

Kudláček, Tomáš

LeBoldus, Jared

Lee, Christopher A.

Li, DeWei

Llanos, Alejandro K.

Lopez-Nicora, Horacio D.

ORCID

Machado, Helena

ORCID

di San Lio, Gaetano Magnano

Maia, Cristiana

Mandal, Kajal

Manosalva, Patricia

ORCID

Martin, Frank N.

Matson, Michael E. H.

McDougal, Rebecca L.

ORCID

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.

Hand, Francesca Peduto

ORCID

Pérez-Sierra, Ana

Pettersson, Martin

Prasad, Pramod

ORCID

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

ORCID

Uematsu, Seiji

Van Poucke, Kris

ORCID

Vichou, Aikaterini E.

Walter, Monika

Webber, Joan F.

Williams, Nari M.

ORCID

Wingfield, Michael J.

Yadav, Dhananjay

Yang, Xiao

ORCID

Jung, Thomas

ORCID

Date published

June 1, 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. Because, cladistically, this renders Phytophthora “paraphyletic,” it has been proposed that Phytophthora evolutionary clades be split into multiple genera ( Crous et al. 2021 ; Runge et al. 2011 ; Thines 2023 , 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 the genus splitting proposals, both in general terms and in terms of the specific proposals for new genera, alongside new information regarding the biological properties and mode of origin of the Phytophthora clades. We consider that the proposals are mostly non-rigorous and not supported by the scientific evidence. Further, given (i) the apparent lack of any distinguishing biological characteristics (synapomorphies) between the Phytophthora clades; (ii) the fundamental monophyly of Phytophthora in the original Haeckelian sense ( Haeckel 1877 ); (iii) the fact that paraphyly is not a justification for taxonomic splitting; and (iv) the considerable likely damage to effective scientific communication and disease management from an unnecessary breakup of the genus, we report that workshop delegates voted unanimously in favor 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. [Formula: see text] Copyright © 2025 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license .