Sexual reproduction only second choice for powdery mildew

Genetically, powdery mildew is perfectly adapted to its host plants. Evidently, sexual reproduction and new combinations of genetic material usually prove disadvantageous for the fungus. Asexual reproduction, however, is considerably more successful for mildew, as plant biologists from the University of Zurich and the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne demonstrate. Nonetheless, the fungus still allows itself a sexual reproduction cycle.

Fuente : http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-07/uoz…