AgriMyc

Phylum	Class	Order	Family	Genus	Species/Subspecies

Species/Subspecies:

Aphanomyces astaci

Category:

Animal pathogen

Etymology:

Genus name: invisible fungus.
Species epithet: from crayfish.

Common name:

Kräftpest

Significance:

Is of great importance in Sweden because this organism has eradicated large parts of the Swedish crayfish population, due to the spread caused by implantation of the signal crayfish (which is resistant).
[Important]

Geographic distribution:

The natural range of A. astaci is probably North America where the wild crayfish, signal crayfish, is resistant to the disease. The signal crayfish can carry the organism and spread it further, as it has done to large parts of Europe, posing a serious threat to the European crayfish.

Taxonomy:

Phylum	Class	Order	Family	Genus
Oomycota	Oomycetes	Saprolegniales	Leptolegniaceae	Aphanomyces

Note that members of phylum Oomycota do not belong to the actual fungi (Kingdom: Fungi), but belong to a separate group (Kingdom: Chromista), which are also called water moulds (or water molds).

Macromorphology (smell):

ACC-No GenBank	Strain/Isolate	# of chrom	Size (Mbp)
GCA_000520075	APO3		58.6

Mitochondrial DNA sequence:

ACC-No GenBank	Strain/Isolate	Number of BP
NC_032051	AP03	49 489

Circular DNA

18S rRNA Seq:

ACC-No GenBank	Strain/Isolate	Number of NT
XR_717101	APO3	1807

ITS regions:

Taxonomy/phylogeny:

Note that this group of organisms does not belong to the kingdom Fungi but instead to the kingdom Chromista, and it is believed that they are closely related to brown algae and diatoms.

Legislation:

Crayfish plague is notifiable to the World Organization of Animal Health (OIE). In Sweden, the crayfish plague is also notifiable to the Swedish board of Agriculture.

Reference(s):

No. 53, 54

Updated:

2021-06-23