Allen completed many studies on Puccinia graminis, once considered a catastrophically damaging disease-causing agent in cereal crops before the discovery of current management measures (Schumann and Leonard, 2000).
Her work on the cytology of the rust fungus Puccinia graminis helped to elucidate the life cycle and pathology of this devastating fungal disease agent of cereal crops.
tritici, commonly called stem rust of wheat, is notoriously complex, with five types of spores (macrocyclic) and two distinct host plants (heteroecious).
This fungus is an obligate biotrophic (feeding on the living plant tissue) pathogen of cereal crops that can cause extensive yield loss (Schumann and Leonard, 2000).
Until the advent of resistant cultivars, stem rust of wheat was considered a devastating pathogen capable of re-infecting plants in the same field over time and reaching epidemic levels.