• Mycobiology
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.87-96
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• 2019

Fungi produce various secondary metabolites that have beneficial and harmful effects on other organisms. Those bioactive metabolites have been explored as potential medicinal and antimicrobial resources. However, the activities of the culture filtrate (CF) and metabolites of whiterot fungus (Schizophyllum commune) have been underexplored. In this study, we assayed the antimicrobial activities of CF obtained from white-rot fungus against various plant pathogens and evaluated its efficacy for controlling anthracnose and gray mold in pepper plants. The CF inhibited the mycelial growth of various fungal plant pathogens, but not of bacterial pathogens. Diluted concentrations of CF significantly suppressed the severity of anthracnose and gray mold in pepper fruits. Furthermore, the incidence of anthracnose in field conditions was reduced by treatment with a 12.5% dilution of CF. The active compound responsible for the antifungal and disease control activity was identified and verified as schizostatin. Our results indicate that the CF of white-rot fungus can be used as an eco-friendly natural product against fungal plant pathogens. Moreover, the compound, schizostatin could be used as a biochemical resource or precursor for development as a pesticide. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on the control of plant diseases using CF and active compound from white-rot fungus. We discussed the controversial antagonistic activity of schizostatin and believe that the CF of white-rot fungus or its active compound, schizostatin, could be used as a biochemical pesticide against fungal diseases such as anthracnose and gray mold in many vegetables.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.607-618
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• 2021

The pepper anthracnose fungus, Colletotrichum scovillei, causes severe losses of pepper fruit production in the tropical and temperate zones. RAC1 is a highly conserved small GTP-binding protein in the Rho GT-Pase family. This protein has been demonstrated to play a role in fungal development, and pathogenicity in several plant pathogenic fungi. However, the functional roles of RAC1 are not characterized in C. scovillei causing anthracnose on pepper fruits. Here, we generated a deletion mutant (𝜟Csrac1) via homologous recombination to investigate the functional roles of CsRAC1. The 𝜟Csrac1 showed pleiotropic defects in fungal growth and developments, including vegetative growth, conidiogenesis, conidial germination and appressorium formation, compared to wild-type. Although 𝜟Csrac1 was able to develop appressoria, it failed to differentiate appressorium pegs. However, 𝜟Csrac1 still caused anthracnose disease with significantly reduced rate on wounded pepper fruits. Further analyses revealed that 𝜟Csrac1 was defective in tolerance to oxidative stress and suppression of host-defense genes. Taken together, our results suggest that CsRAC1 plays essential roles in fungal development and pathogenicity in C. scovilleipepper fruit pathosystem.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.345-354
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• 2022

NADPH oxidase (Nox) complexes are known to play essential roles in differentiation and proliferation of many filamentous fungi. However, the functions of Noxs have not been elucidated in Colletotrichum species. Therefore, we set out to characterize the roles of Nox enzymes and their regulators in Colletotrichum scovillei, which causes serious anthracnose disease on pepper fruits in temperate and subtropical and temperate region. In this study, we generated targeted deletion mutants for CsNox1, CsNox2, CsNoxR, and CsNoxD via homologous recombination. All deletion mutants were normal in mycelial growth, conidiation, conidial germination, and appressorium formation, suggesting that CsNox1, CsNox2, CsNoxR, and CsNoxD are not involved in those developmental processes. Notably, conidia of 𝜟Csnox2 and 𝜟Csnoxr, other than 𝜟Csnox1 and 𝜟Csnoxd, failed to cause anthracnose on intact pepper fruits. However, they still caused normal disease on wounded pepper fruits, suggesting that Csnox2 and CsnoxR are essential for penetration-related morphogenesis in C. scovillei. Further observation proved that 𝜟Csnox2 and 𝜟Csnoxr were unable to form penetration peg, while they fully developed appressoria, revealing that defect of anthracnose development by 𝜟Csnox2 and 𝜟Csnoxr resulted from failure in penetration peg formation. Our results suggest that CsNox2 and CsNoxR are critical for appressorium-mediated penetration in C. scovillei-pepper fruit pathosystem, which provides insight into understanding roles of Nox genes in anthracnose disease development.

• Mycobiology
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.194-199
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• 2011

Pepper anthracnose caused by Colletotrichum species is one of the most important limiting factors for pepper production in Korea, its management being strongly dependent on chemicals. The aim of this work was to evaluate the possibilities of using silver nanoparticles instead of commercial fungicides. In this study, we evaluated the effect of silver nanoparticles against pepper anthracnose under different culture conditions. Silver nanoparticles (WA-PR-WB13R) were applied at various concentrations to determine antifungal activities in vitro and in the field. The application of 100 ppm concentration of silver nanoparticles produced maximum inhibition of the growth of fungal hyphae as well as conidial germination in comparison to the control in vitro. In field trials, the inhibition of fungi was significantly high when silver nanoparticles were applied before disease outbreak on the plants. Scanning electron microscopy results indicated that the silver nanoparticles caused a detrimental effect on mycelial growth of Colletotrichum species.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.317-321
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• 2008

In a search for plant extracts with in vivo antifungal activity for plant diseases, we found that the methanol extract of Myristica malabarica fruit rinds effectively suppressed the development of several plant diseases. The methanol extract exhibited potent 1-day protective activity against rice blast, tomato late blight, wheat leaf rust and red pepper anthracnose. It also showed 7-day and 4-day protective activities against the plant diseases. Three antifungal resorcinols were isolated from the methanol extract of M. malabarica fruit rinds and identified as malabaricones A(MA), B(MB), and C(MC). Inhibitory activity of the three resorcinols against mycelial growth of plant pathogenic fungi varied according to compound and target species. All three compounds effectively reduced the development of rice blast, wheat leaf rust and red pepper anthracnose. In addition, MC was highly active for reducing the development of tomato late blight. This is the first report on the antifungal activities of malabaricones against filamentous fungi.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.23 no.2 s.73
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• pp.190-195
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• 1995

For the screening of biocontrol agents against red-pepper anthracnose (Colletotrichum gloeosporioides Penz) 248 isolates of bacteria, 51 of fungi and 30 of yeasts were obtained from phyllospere of medicinal plants. Of isolated microorganisms, four bacterial isolates, KB6, KB12, KB13 and KB14 were highly antagonistic to C. gloeosporioides than the others through dual culture test on potato dextrose agar (PDA). Among the four bacterial isolates, culture filtrate of the isolate KB12 showed the highest inhibition of C. gloeosporioides on PDA. The culture filtrates of four isolates controlled anthracnose on the red fruits, but not on the green fruits. In the living bacterial cell test, high control effect was observed both on the red and the green fruits. In the biochemical test, all isolates were identified as Bacillus subtilis.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.366.4-367
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• 2001

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Plant Pathology Conference
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• 1997.06a
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• pp.47-55
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• 1997

Plant growth promoting fungi(PGPF) obtained from zoysiagrass rhizosphere offer dual advantages - induse systemic disease resistance response in cucumber to C. orbiculare infection and cause enhancement of plant growth and increase yield. PGPF protected plants either by colonizing roots or by their metabolites. PGPF offer an advantage by protecting plants for more than 9 weeks and 6 week in the greenhouse and field. PGPF-induced plants limited pathogen spore germination and decreased the number of infection hyphae on the leaf, and increased lignification at places of attempted pathogen infection, thus reducing the pathogen spread. PGPF elicited increased activities of chitinascs, glucanases, peroxidase, polyphenol oxidase, and phenylalanine ammonia lyase to C. orbiculare infection in cucumber plants. The role of PGPF in elevating cucumber defense response to pathogen infection suggests potential application of PGPF as biological control agents.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.202-206
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• 2008

Antifungal activity of Korean and Chinese lichen-forming fungi (LFF) was evaluated against plant pathogenic fungus of Colletotrichum acutatum, causal agent of anthracnose on hot pepper. This is the first attempt to evaluate antifungal activity of LFF, instead of lichen thalli, against C. acutatum. Total 100 LFF were isolated from the lichens with discharged spore method or tissue culture method. Among the 100 isolates, 8 LFF showed more than 50% of inhibition rates of mycelial growth of the target pathogen. Especially, Lecanora argentata was highly effective in inhibition of mycelial growth of C. accutatum at the rate of 68%. Antifungal activity of other LFF was in the order of Cetrelia japonica (61.4%), Ramalina conduplicans (59.5%), Umbilicaria esculenta (59.5%), Ramalina litoralis (56.7%), Cetrelia braunsiana (56.5%), Nephromopsis pallescensn (56.1%), and Parmelia simplicior (53.8%). Among the tested LFF, 61 isolates of LFF exhibited moderate antifungal activity against the target pathogen at the inhibition rates from 30 to 50%. Antifungal activity of the LFF against C. acutatum was variable at the species level rather than genus level of LFF. This study suggests that LFF can be served as a promising bioresource to develop novel biofungicides.

• Mycobiology
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.440-447
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• 2018

Dual biocontrol of both insects and plant pathogens has been reported for certain fungal entomopathogens, including Beauveria bassiana and Lecanicillum spp. In this study, we demonstrate, for the first time, the dual biocontrol potential of two fungal isolates identified by morphological and phylogenetic analyses as Isaria javanica. Both these isolates caused mortality in the greater wax moth, and hence can be considered entomopathogens. Spores of the isolates were also pathogenic to nymphs of the green peach aphid (Myzus persicae), with an $LC_{50}$ value of $10^7spores/mL$ 4 days after inoculation and an $LT_{50}$ of 4.2 days with a dose of $10^8spores/mL$. In vitro antifungal assays also demonstrated a strong inhibitory effect on the growth of two fungi that are pathogenic to peppers, Colletotrichum gloeosporioides and Phytophthora capsici. These results indicate that I. javanica isolates could be used as novel biocontrol agents for the simultaneous control of aphids and fungal diseases, such as anthracnose and Phytophthora blight, in an integrated pest management framework for red pepper.