Peanut smut (Thecaphora frezii)

Peanut smut (Thecaphora frezii) is currently the most damaging disease of this crop. It is a fungal disease spread by highly resistant spores that can remain viable in the soil for many years.

The smut develops within the pods, and its severity can range from small brown pustules on the seeds, to their complete replacement with fungal spores. The fact that it only affects the development of the peanut inside the pod, without discernible signs or symptoms above ground, makes it even more detrimental, since farmers do not have a way of knowing how much of their crops will be lost to this disease until the time of harvest, and after all the expenditures in irrigation, fertilizers, and pesticides have been made.

At the moment this disease is only known to be present in Argentina, the largest exporter of peanuts in the world. There are, however, concerns over the risk of the disease spreading across the world. For this reason, FuEDEI is working in cooperation with USDA-ARS, INTA, and several private stakeholders in order to better understand the biology of this pathogen, the natural intra-specific genetic diversity in different parts of its home range in Argentina, and how interacts in nature with wild species of the genus Arachis. This involves both field work, through surveys of domesticated and wild species of peanuts in their native range, and lab work, developing techniques that allow the multiplication of the smut in vitro in order to study its genetics, biology, and infection mechanisms, with a long-term view to developing varieties of peanuts resistant to this disease before it continues to spread.