Plant Pathology Journal最新文献

Rice panicle blast is one of the most serious diseases threatening stable rice production by causing severe damage to rice yields and quality. The disease is easy to occur under low air temperature and frequent heavy rainfall during the heading season of rice. In 2021, a rice panicle blast severely occurred in the Jeonbuk province of Korea. The incidence area of panicle blast accounted for 27.7% of the rice cultivation area of Jeonbuk province in 2021, which was 13.7-times higher than in 2019 and 2.6-times higher than in 2020. This study evaluated the incidence areas of rice panicle blast in each region of Jeonbuk province in 2021. The weather conditions during the heading season of rice, mainly cultivated rice cultivars, and the race diversity of the Jeonbuk isolates were also investigated. It will provide important information for the effective control of the rice panicle blast.

Fire blight, caused by Erwinia amylovora, is one of the major bacterial disease of apple and pear, causing enormous economic losses worldwide. Several control measures against E. amylovora have been reported till date, however, none of them have proved to be effective significantly against the pathogen. In this study, mechanisms of the copper-based control agents (CBCAs): copper oxychloride (COCHL), copper oxide (COX), copper hydroxide (CHY), copper sulfate basic (CSB), and tribasic copper sulfate (TCS) and their disease severity reduction efficacy against E. amylovora were analyzed. Bis-1,3-dibutylbarbituric acid trimethine oxonol, carboxyl fluorescein diacetate succinimidyl ester, and 5-cyano-2,3-ditolyl tetrazolium chloride staining were used to check the damage of membrane potential, cytoplasmic pHin, and respiration of CBCAs-treated E. amylovora, respectively. High disturbance in the membrane potential of E. amylovora was found under COX and COCHL treatments. Similarly, higher significant changes in the inner cytoplasmic pHin were observed under COX, COCHL, and TCS treatment. CHY and COCHL-treated E. amylovora showed a significant reduction in respiration. In vitro bioassay results revealed that CHY, CSB, and TCS at 2,000 ppm reduced the severity of fire blight both in pre- and post-treatment of CBCAs in immature apple fruits and seedlings. Overall, the most effective CBCAs against E. amylovora could be CHY at 2,000 ppm as its showed inhibition mechanisms and disease severity reduction.

The pine wood nematode (PWN), Bursaphelenchus xylophilus is a well-known devastating pathogen of economic importance in the Republic of Korea and other countries. In the Republic of Korea, trunk injection of nematicides is the preferred method of control. In this study, the efficacy of 16 locally produced formulations of emamectin benzoate against the PWN are compared through determining their sublethal toxicities and reproduction inhibition potentials. Nematodes were treated with varying concentrations of the tested chemicals in multi-well culture plates, and rates of paralysis and mortality were determined after 24 h. Reproduction inhibition potential was tested by inoculating pre-treated nematodes onto Botrytis cinerea, and in pine twig cuttings. Despite the uniformity in the concentration of the active ingredient, efficacy was contrastingly different among formulations. The formulations evidently conformed to three distinct groups based on similarities in sublethal activity (group 1: LC95 of 0.00768-0.01443 mg/ml; group 2: LC95 of 0.03202-0.07236 mg/ml, and group 3: LC95 of as high as 0.30643-0.40811 mg/ml). Nematode paralysis generally occurred at the application dose of 0.0134-0.1075 μg/ml, and there were significant differences in nematode paralysis rates among the products. Nematode reproduction was only evident at lower doses both on B. cinerea and pine twigs, albeit the variations among formulations. Group 1 formulations significantly reduced nematode reproduction even at a lower dose of 0.001075 µg/ml. The variations in efficacy might be attributed to differences in inert ingredients. Therefore, there is need to analyze the potential antagonistic effects of the large number of additives used in formulations.

Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici (Fol) and Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense (Foc), are the causal agent of Fusarium wilt disease of tomato and banana, respectively, and cause significant yield losses worldwide. A cost-effective measure, such as biological control agents, was used as an alternative method to control these pathogens. Therefore, in this study, six isolates of the Streptomyces-like colony were isolated from soils and their antagonistic activity against phytopathogenic fungi and plant growth-promoting (PGP) activity were assessed. The results showed that these isolates could inhibit the mycelial growth of Fol and Foc. Among them, isolate STRM304 showed the highest percentage of mycelial growth reduction and broad-spectrum antagonistic activity against all tested fungi. In the pot experiment study, the culture filtrate of isolates STRM103 and STRM104 significantly decreased disease severity and symptoms in Fol inoculated plants. Similarly, the culture filtrate of the STRM304 isolate significantly reduced the severity of the disease and symptoms of the disease in Foc inoculated plants. The PGP activity test presents PGP activities, such as indole acetic acid production, phosphate solubilization, starch hydrolysis, lignin hydrolysis, and cellulase activity. Interestingly, the application of the culture filtrate from all isolates increased the percentage of tomato seed germination and stimulated the growth of tomato plants and banana seedlings, increasing the elongation of the shoot and the root and shoot and root weight compared to the control treatment. Therefore, the isolate STRM103 and STRM104, and STRM304 could be used as biocontrol and PGP agents for tomato and banana, respectively, in sustainable agriculture.

In the present investigation, bacterial isolates from infected apple trees causing apple canker during winter were studied in the northern Gyeongbuk Province, Korea. The pathogen was identified as Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae (Pss) through various physiological and biochemical characterization assays such as BIOLOG, gas chromatography of fatty acid methyl esters, and 16S rRNA. Bioassays for the production of phytotoxins were positive for syringopeptin and syringomycin against Bacillus megaterium and Geotrichum candidum, respectively. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method enabled the detection of toxin-producing genes, syrB1, and sypB in Pss. The differentiation of strains was performed using LOPAT and GATTa tests. Pss further exhibited ice nucleation activity (INA) at a temperature of -0.7°C, indicating an INA+ bacterium. The ice-nucleating temperature was -4.7°C for a non-treated control (sterilized distilled water), whereas it was -9.6°C for an INA- bacterium Escherichia coli TOP10. These methods detected pathogenic strains from apple orchards. Pss might exist in an apple tree during ice injury, and it secretes a toxin that makes leaves yellow and cause canker symptoms. Until now, Korea has not developed antibiotics targeting Pss. Therefore, it is necessary to develop effective disease control to combat Pss in apple orchards. Pathogenicity test on apple leaves and stems showed canker symptoms. The pathogenic bacterium was re-isolated from symptomatic plant tissue and confirmed as original isolates by 16S rRNA. Repetitive element sequence-based PCR and enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus PCR primers revealed different genetic profiles within P. syringae pathovars. High antibiotic susceptibility results showed the misreading of mRNA caused by streptomycin and oxytetracycline.

Cymbidium mosaic virus (CymMV) is one of economically important viruses that cause significant losses of orchids in the world. In the present study, a reverse transcription recombinase polymerase amplification (RT-RPA) assay combined with a lateral flow immunostrip (LFI) assay was developed for the detection of CymMV in orchid plants. A pair of primers containing fluorescent probes at each terminus that amplifies highly specifically a part of the coat protein gene of CymMV was determined for RT-RPA assay. The RT-RPA assay involved incubation at an isothermal temperature (39°C) and could be performed rapidly within 30 min. In addition, no cross-reactivity was observed to occur with odontoglossum ringspot virus and cymbidium chlorotic mosaic virus. The RT-RPA with LFI assay (RT-RPA-LFI) for CymMV showed 100 times more sensitivity than conventional reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Furthermore, the RT-PCR-LFI assay demonstrated the simplicity and the rapidity of CymMV detection since the assay did not require any equipment, by comparing results with those of conventional RT-PCR. On-site application of the RT-RPA-LFI assay was validated for the detection of CymMV in field-collected orchids, indicating a simple, rapid, sensitive, and reliable method for detecting CymMV in orchids.

Soybean (Glycine max (L) Merr.) provides plant-derived proteins, soy vegetable oils, and various beneficial metabolites to humans and livestock. The importance of soybean is highly underlined, especially when carbon-negative sustainable agriculture is noticeable. However, many diseases by pests and pathogens threaten sustainable soybean production. Therefore, understanding molecular interaction between diverse cultivated varieties and pathogens is essential to developing disease-resistant soybean plants. Here, we established a pathosystem of the Korean domestic cultivar Kwangan against Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae B728a. This bacterial strain caused apparent disease symptoms and grew well in trifoliate leaves of soybean plants. To examine the disease susceptibility of the cultivar, we analyzed transcriptional changes in soybean leaves on day 5 after P. syringae pv. syringae B728a infection. About 8,900 and 7,780 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in this study, and significant proportions of DEGs were engaged in various primary and secondary metabolisms. On the other hand, soybean orthologs to well-known plant immune-related genes, especially in plant hormone signal transduction, mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling, and plant-pathogen interaction, were mainly reduced in transcript levels at 5 days post inoculation. These findings present the feature of the compatible interaction between cultivar Kwangan and P. syringae pv. syringae B728a, as a hemibiotroph, at the late infection phase. Collectively, we propose that P. syringae pv. syringae B728a successfully inhibits plant immune response in susceptible plants and deregulates host metabolic processes for their colonization and proliferation, whereas host plants employ diverse metabolites to protect themselves against infection with the hemibiotrophic pathogen at the late infection phase.