The agent responsible for the blight that caused the nineteenth-century Irish potato famine, Phytophthora infestans, should not be “grouped with fungi” (Nature 493, 154–156; 2013).
It was Anton de Bary, the father of mycology, who coined the genus name Phytophthora ('plant-destroyer') and classed the pathogen as a fungus. But modern molecular sequencing indicates that his interpretation was incorrect (M. D. M. Jones et al. Nature 474, 200–203; 2011).
The organism is actually an oomycete, a pseudo-fungus that evolved from killer ancestors in the ancient oceans and not from wood-degrading fungi.
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Kutschera, U. Fungus did not cause potato famine. Nature 494, 314 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/494314e
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/494314e