• Mycobiology
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.475-486
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• 2022

The antifungal activity of thymol against Aspergillus awamori F23 and Botrytis aclada F15 in onions was examined through direct treatment with amended media and gaseous treatment with I-plates (plastic plates containing central partitions). The protective and curative control efficacy of thymol was examined 24 h before and after the inoculation of onion bulbs with the fungal isolates. Mycelial growth, sporulation, and spore germination of the isolates were inhibited on potato dextrose agar amended with various concentrations of thymol or acetic acid (positive control). Overall, thymol produced a stronger inhibitory effect on the mycelial growth and development of the isolates than acetic acid. Following gaseous treatment in I-plates, mycelial growth, sporulation, and spore germination of the isolates were inhibited at higher concentrations of thymol or acetic acid; however, acetic acid showed a little effect on the sporulation and spore germination of the isolates. Following the treatment of onion bulbs with 1000 mg L^-1 of thymol 24 h before and after fungal inoculation, lesion diameter was greatly reduced compared with that following treatment with 0.5% ethanol (solvent control). Onion bulbs sprayed with thymol 24 h before fungal inoculation generally showed reduced lesion diameters by isolate F23 but not in isolate F15 compared with those sprayed 24 h after fungal inoculation. Collectively, thymol effectively inhibited the growth and development of A. awamori and B. aclada on amended media and in I-plates. In addition, spraying or fumigation of thymol is more desirable for effectively controlling these postharvest fungal pathogens during long-term storage conditions.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.205-214
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• 2021

The use of the supernatant from a Bacillus subtilis culture mixed with sodium bicarbonate was explored as a means of controlling stem brown spot disease in dragon fruit plants. In in vitro experiments, the B. subtilis supernatant used with sodium bicarbonate showed a strong inhibition effect on the growth of the fungus, Neoscytalidium dimidiatum, the agent causing stem brown spot disease and was notably effective in preventing fungal invasion of dragon fruit plant. This combination not only directly suppressed the growth of N. dimidiatum, but also indirectly affected the development of the disease by eliciting the dragon-fruit plant's defense response. Substantial levels of the pathogenesis-related proteins, chitinase and glucanase, and the phenylpropanoid biosynthetic pathway enzymes, peroxidase and phenyl alanine ammonia-lyase, were triggered. Significant lignin deposition was also detected in treated cladodes of injured dragon fruit plants in in vivo experiments. In summary, B. subtilis supernatant combined with sodium bicarbonate protected dragon fruit plant loss through stem brown spot disease during plant development in the field through pathogenic fungal inhibition and the induction of defense response mechanisms.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.16-24
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• 2016

In this study, antifungal activity of essential oils of Cymbopogon citratus and Ocimum basilicum and two fungicides Mancozeb and Metalaxyl-Mancozeb in six different concentrations were investigated for controlling three species of Phytophthora, including P. capsici, P. drechsleri and P. melonis on pepper, cucumber and melon under in vitro and greenhouse conditions, respectively. Under the in vitro condition, the median effective concen- tration ($EC_{50}$) values (ppm) of plant essential oils and fungicides were measured. In greenhouse, soil infested with Phytophthora species was treated by adding 50 ml of essential oils and fungicides (100 ppm). Disease severity was determined after 28 days. Among two tested plant essential oils, C. citratus had the lowest $EC_{50}$ values for inhibition of the mycelial growth of P. capsici (31.473), P. melonis (33.097) and P. drechsleri (69.112), respectively. The mean $EC_{50}$ values for Metalaxyl-Mancozeb on these pathogens were 20.87, 20.06 and 17.70, respectively. Chemical analysis of plant essential oils by GC-MS showed that, among 42 compounds identified from C. citratus, two compounds ${\beta}$-geranial (${\alpha}$-citral) (39.16%) and z-citral (30.95%) were the most abundant. Under the greenhouse condition, Metalaxyl-Mancozeb caused the greatest reduction in disease severity, 84.2%, 86.8% and 92.1% on melon, cucumber, and pepper, respectively. The C. citratus essential oil reduced disease severity from 47.4% to 60.5% compared to the untreated control ($p{\leq}0.05$). Essential oils of O. basilicum had the lowest effects on the pathogens under in vitro and greenhouse conditions. These results show that essential oils may contribute to the development of new antifungal agents to protect the crops from Phytophthora diseases.

• The Korean Journal of Pesticide Science
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.275-282
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• 2009

The effect of two plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) on plant growth and systemic protection against soft rot disease and stem rot disease of canola (Brassica napus), caused by Erwinia carotovora and Sclerotinia sclerotiorum was investigated in a laboratory and a greenhouse. Selected PGPR strains C4 and D8 were treated to canola seeds by soaking. Strains C4 and D8 significantly not only increased plant height and root length about 74% and 40.3% and also reduced disease severity of soft rot disease by 80% by C4 and D8 respectively, compared to the control. Especially strain C4 showed antifungal activity against 6 fungal pathogens, S. sclerotiorum, Rhizoctonia solani, Botrytis cinerea, Fusarium oxysporum, Phytophthora capsici and Colletotrichum acutatum. In greenhouse experiment, the seed treatment of both of them increased plant height, leaf width and leaf length of canola plant to 19.5% and 24.9%, 11.3% and 15.3%, and 14.1% and 20.7% by C4 and D8, respectively, and reduced disease severity of S. sclerotiorium. These results indicate that these two PGPR strains can decrease disease severity and increased plant growth under greenhouse condition. Therefore, these two bacteria have a potential in controlling Sclerotinia stem rot of canola. These strains have to investigate under field condition to determine their role of antibiosis, induced systemic resistance and plant growth promotion on canola.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.207-224
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• 2011

Diseases caused by plant pathogenic bacteria constitute an emerging threat to global food security. Xanthomonas is a large genus of Gram-negative bacteria that cause disease in several host plants leading to considerable losses in productivity and quality of harvests. Despite the ranges of controlling techniques available, the microbiological safety of economically important crops and crop plants including fruits and vegetables continues to be a major concern to the agriculture industry. On the other hand, many of the currently available antimicrobial agents for agriculture are highly toxic, non-biodegradable and cause extended environmental pollution. Besides, the use of antibiotics has provoked an increased resistance among the bacterial pathogens and their pathovars. Thus, novel efficient and safe remedies for controlling plant bacterial diseases are necessary. There has been an increasing interest worldwide on therapeutic values of natural products such as essential oils, hence the purpose of this review is to provide an overview of the published data on the antibacterial efficacy of essential oils that could be considered suitable for application in agriculture as biocontrol measures against plant pathogenic bacteria of Xanthomonas species. The current knowledge on the use of essential oils to control Xanthomonas bacteria in vitro and in vivo models has been discussed. A brief description on the legal aspects on the use of essential oils against bacterial pathogens has also been presented. Through this review, a mode of antibacterial action of essential oils along with their chemical nature and the area for future research have been thoroughly discussed.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.163-169
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• 1985

The efficacy of fungicides was compared for control of root rot as well as leaf blight caused by Phytophthora cactorum on ginseng plants. Growth of P. cactorum in rlitro was completely or highly inhibited by metalaxyl, tetracyclin, captafol, carbendazim, and thiophanate + thiram. In field trials, the disease was significantly reduced not only in the root rot but also in the leaf blight when metalaxyl was applied at 4.17 mg a.i. per plant for soil drenching and 1.25 mg a.i. for foliage application. Also captafol was effective on control of the leaf blight but its effect was inferior to that of metalaxyl. Metalaxyl lost its effectiveness in vivo between the 5th and 7th week after soil wren ching. Phytotoxicity was, however, observed on 2 years old ginseng plants when metalaxyl was drenched at 8 mg a.i. while no phytotoxic symptom was developed on 2 years old ginseng plants at 4k mg a.i. and 3 years old at 16 mg a.i. per plant, respectively.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.189-199
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• 2019

In this research, the relationships among the 31 microsatellite markers with charcoal rot disease resistance related indices in 130 different soybean cultivars and lines were evaluated using association analysis based on the general linear model (GLM) and the mixed linear model (MLM) by the Structure and Tassel software. The results of microsatellite markers showed that the genetic structure of the studied population has three subpopulations (K=3) which the results of bar plat also confirmed it. In association analysis based on GLM and MLM models, 31 and 35 loci showed significant relationships with the evaluated traits, respectively, and confirmed considerable variation of the studied traits. The identified markers related to some of the studied traits were the same which can probably be due to pleiotropic effects or tight linkage among the genomic regions controlling these traits. Some of these relationships were including, the relationship between Sat_252 marker with amount of charcoal rot disease, Satt359, Satt190 and Sat_169 markers with number of microsclerota in stem, amount of charcoal rot disease and severity of charcoal rot disease, Sat_416 marker with number of microsclerota in stem and amount of charcoal rot disease and the Satt460 marker with number of microsclerota in stem and severity of charcoal rot disease. The results of this research and the linked microsatellite markers with the charcoal rot disease-related characteristics can be used to identify the suitable parents and to improve the soybean population in future breeding programs.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.398-405
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• 2020

Nutrient manipulation is a promising strategy for controlling plant diseases in sustainable agriculture. Although many studies have investigated the relationships between certain elements and plant diseases, few have comprehensively explored how differing mineral nutrition levels might affect plant-fungal pathogen interactions, namely plant susceptibility and resistance. Here, we systematically explored the effects of the seven mineral elements that plants require in the greatest amounts for normal development on the susceptibility of soybean plants (Glycine max) to Fusarium oxysporum infection in controlled greenhouse conditions. Nitrogen (N) negligibly affected plant susceptibility to infection in the range 4 to 24 mM for both tested soybean cultivars. At relatively high concentrations, phosphorus (P) increased plant susceptibility to infection, which led to severely reduced shoot and root dry weights. Potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), sulfur (S), and iron (Fe) induced plant resistance to infection as their concentrations were increased. For K and Ca, moderate concentrations had a positive effect on plant resistance to the pathogen, whereas relatively high doses of either element adversely affected plant growth and promoted disease symptoms. Further experiments were conducted, assessing disease suppression by selected combinations of macro-elements and Fe at screened concentrations, i.e., K (9 mM) plus Fe (0.2 mM), and S (4 mM) plus Fe (0.2 mM). The disease index was significantly reduced by the combination of K plus Fe. In conclusion, this systematic investigation of soybean plant responses to F. oxysporum infection provides a solid basis for future environmentally-friendly choices for application in soybean disease control programs.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.168-170
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• 2016

We previously found that the antibacterial activity of silver phosphate crystals on Escherichia coli depends on their structure. We here show that the cubic form of silver phosphate crystal (SPC) can also be applied to inhibit the growth of a plant-pathogenic Pseudomonas syringae bacterium. SPC pretreatment resulted in reduced in planta multiplication of P. syringae. Induced expression of a plant defense marker gene PR1 by SPC alone is suggestive of its additional plant immunity-stimulating activity. Since SPC can simultaneously inhibit P. syringae growth and induce plant defense responses, it might be used as a more effective plant disease-controlling agent.

• Korean Journal Plant Pathology
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.491-495
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• 1998

A fungal disease of the cultivated mushroom, Ganoderma lucidum, caused by Xylogone sphaerospora was epidemic throughout all cultivation areas in Korea which caused a lot of yield losses in the mushroom production. For controlling the disease, the screening of effective fungicides against the pathogenic fungus were conducted. Thirty seven commercially available fungicides were tested for their inhibitory activities on potato dextrose agar media supplemented with these fungicides at various concentrations. Twenty one fungicides significantly inhibited mycelial growth of the pathogen, Xylogone sphaerospora, but 16 fungicides had no inhibitory effect. Among these 21 fungicides, 17 fungicides also inhibited mycelial growth of Ganoderma lucidum as well, but imazalil, procymidone, triforine, and vinclozolin had no inhibitory effects. However, vinclozolin showed no inhibitory effect on mycelial growth of the mushroom even at the concentration of 50 $\mu\textrm{g}$/ml vinclozolin solution for 2 hours, and then the pathogen was inoculated. After two month-cultivation of the mushroom, over 90% of logs treated with vinclozolin without pathogen inoculation produced fruiting bodies. However, fruiting bodies were not produced form the logs inoculated with the pathogen, but not treated with vinclozolin. Fifty seven percent of logs. which were pre-treated with vinclozolin and then inoculated with the pathogen produced fruiting bodies. Based on the results, vinclozolin is effective for the control of yellow disease of the Ganoderma lucidum caused by Xylogone sphaerospora.