Claviceps purpurea is an ergot fungus that grows on the ears of rye and related cereal and forage plants. Consumption of grains or seeds contaminated with the survival structure of this fungus, the ergot sclerotium, can cause ergotism in humans and other mammals. C. purpurea most commonly affects outcrossing species such as rye (its most common host), as well as triticale, wheat and barley. It affects oats only rarely.
Life cycle
An ergot kernel called Sclerotium clavus develops when a floret of flowering grass or cereal is infected by an ascospore of C. purpurea. The infection process mimics a pollen grain growing into an ovary during fertilization. Because infection requires access of the fungal spore to the stigma, plants infected by C. purpurea are mainly outcrossing species with open flowers, such as rye (Secale cereale) and Alopecurus.
The proliferating fungal mycelium then destroys the plant ovary and connects with the vascular bundle originally intended for feeding the developing seed. The first stage of ergot infection manifests itself as a white soft tissue (known as Sphacelia segetum) producing sugary honeydew, which often drops out of the infected grass florets. This honeydew contains millions of asexual spores (conidia) which are dispersed to other florets by insects or rain. Later, the Sphacelia segetum convert into a hard dry Sclerotium clavus inside the husk of the floret. At this stage, alkaloids and lipids (e.g. ricinoleic acid) accumulate in the Sclerotium.
When a mature Sclerotium drops to the ground, the fungus remains dormant until proper conditions trigger its fruiting phase (onset of spring, rain period, need of fresh temperatures during winter, etc.). It germinates, forming one or several fruiting bodies with head and stipe, variously colored (resembling a tiny mushroom). In the head, threadlike sexual spores (ascospores) are formed in perithecia, which are ejected simultaneously, when suitable grass hosts are flowering. Ergot infection causes a reduction in the yield and quality of grain and hay produced, and if infected grain or hay is fed to livestock it may cause a disease called ergotism.
Polistes dorsalis, a species of social wasps, have been recorded as a vector of the spread of this particular fungus. During their foraging behavior, particles of the fungal conidia get bound to parts of this wasp's body. As P. dorsalis travels from source to source, it leaves the fungal infection behind. Insects, including flies and moths, have also been shown to carry conidia of Claviceps species, but if insects play a role in spreading the fungus from infected to healthy plants is unknown.
Intraspecific variations
Early scientists have observed Claviceps purpurea on other Poaceae as Secale cereale. 1855, Grandclement described ergot on Triticum aestivum. During more than a century scientists aimed to describe specialized species or specialized varieties inside the species Claviceps purpurea. Claviceps microcephala Tul. (1853) Claviceps wilsonii Cooke (1884)
Later scientists tried to determine host varieties as
Claviceps purpurea var. agropyri
Claviceps purpurea var. purpurea
Claviceps purpurea var. spartinae
Claviceps purpurea var. wilsonii.
Molecular biology has not confirmed this hypothesis but has distinguished three groups differing in their ecological specificity.
G1—land grasses of open meadows and fields; G2—grasses from moist, forest, and mountain habitats; G3 (C. purpurea var. spartinae)—salt marsh grasses (Spartina, Distichlis).
Morphological criteria to distinguish different groups: The shape and the size of sclerotia are not good indicators because they strongly depend on the size and shape of the host floret. The size of conidia can be an indication but it is weak and it is necessary to pay attention to that, due to osmotic pressure, it varies significantly if the spores are observed in honeydew or in water. The sclerotial density can be used as the groups G2 and G3 float in water.
The compound of alkaloids is also used to differentiate the strains.
Host range
Pooideae
Agrostis canina, Alopecurus myosuroides (G2), Alopecurus arundinaceus (G2), Alopecurus pratensis, Bromus arvensis, Bromus commutatus, Bromus hordeaceus (G2), Bromus inermis, Bromus marginatus, Elymus tsukushiense, Festuca arundinacea, Elymus repens (G1), Nardus stricta, Poa annua (G2), Phleum pratense, Phalaris arundinacea (G2), Poa pratensis (G1), Stipa.
Arundinoideae
Danthonia, Molinia caerulea.
Chloridoideae
Spartina, Distichlis (G3)