ABSTRACT
In nature, the coffee rust fungus, Hemileia vastatrix produces only uredinial, telial, and basidial stages. On the basis of the nuclear condition, Hemileia vastatrix was considered by Rajendran as an autoecious rust characterized by a relatively long diplophase alternating with a relatively short dikaryophase. The essence of epidemiology is epidemics or the development of disease in time and in space. In epidemiology the monocyclic process, or the macroprocess, is subdivided, for the purpose of easy observation and quantification, into three mesoprocesses: sporulation; dissemination; and infection. In a population of pathogens, various meso and microprocesses are quantified as “survival ratio”, based on the number of units surviving from one stage to the next. The infection process of the coffee rust fungus, Hemileia vastatrix, constitutes various stages and subprocesses, from inoculation through the formation of lesions. Urediniospore germination is significantly influenced by the substrate. At high inoculum concentrations, urediniospore germination is reduced or inhibited.
