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 decom-

posed.

4. They have high competitive saprophy-

tic 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.