Sclerotium: Definition from Answers.com

Ergot sclerotia developing on wheat spikes

A sclerotium (plural sclerotia) is a compact mass of hardened fungal mycelium containing food reserves. One role of sclerotia is to survive environmental extremes. In some higher fungi such as ergot, sclerotia become detached and remain dormant until a favorable opportunity for growth. Other fungi that produce sclerotia are prominent pathogens for Canola crops. These and related fungi are generally controlled through the use of fungicides and crop rotation.

Sclerotia resemble cleistothecia in both their morphology and the genetic control of their development. This suggests the two structures may be homologous, sclerotia being vestigial cleistothecia that lost the capacity to produce spores.^[1]

Sclerotium is also the name of a genus of fungi which includes Sclerotium rolfsii, the causal organism of Southern Blight.

References

^ Calvo, A. (2008). "The VeA regulatory system and its role in morphological and chemical development in fungi". Fungal genetics and biology : FG & B 45 (7): 1053–1061. doi:10.1016/j.fgb.2008.03.014. PMID 18457967. edit

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