Question

Fill in the blanks:
Rust and Smuts are ____ diseases.

Answer 1

Hint: These pathogenic organisms belong to the kingdom which has characteristics such as Eukaryotic (cells have membrane-bounded organelles), achlorophyllous (does not have chlorophyll due to which they are unable to perform photosynthesis), and heterotrophic (that does not produce its food).

Complete answer:
Rusts and smuts are fungal diseases and the organisms that cause this disease comes under the orders Uredinales for rusts and Ustilaginales for smuts and they belong to basidiomycete fungi. This pathogenic fungi (plant) only infect plants' live cells. Therefore rust and smuts are caused by fungi.
Both Smut and Rust fungi vary from each other in different ways such as, the rust fungi need two hosts (different ones) to accomplish their life cycle and smut fungi need only one host that is flowering plants. One common difference between rust fungi and smut fungi is the variation in their infection mechanism, rust fungi Infections are limited to the plant part where the germinated urediniospore Or aeciospore becomes habituated. Smut fungi multiply to infect the whole plant from a single primary infection site, commonly aimed for specific plant parts.

Note: -The mode of reproduction in fungi is by the means of spore formation. They also store their excess nutrients in the form of starch.
-Rust and smuts can be prevented by removing the infected plant from the group, Or by using fungicides such as copper sulfate and Formaldehyde.
-Some common examples of such industrially important fungi are mushrooms which are cultivated as a food crop and yeast which is used for fermentation in bread making and alcohol making.