Changes in program directions at the Saskatoon Research Centre have resulted in the organization of a research team equipped to develop microorganisms for the biological control of important agricultural weeds. This paper presents a brief introduction to the science of inundative biological control and an overview of the research progress made on controlling Canada thistle, wild oats, and green...

The genus Septoria includes important plant pathogens with worldwide distribution, commonly associated with leaf spots and stem cankers of a broad range of plant hosts. In this study, eight isolates of Septoria were recovered from leaves with leaf spot on four herbaceous and woody plants from Gilan, Ardebil, East and West Azerbaijan provinces in north and northwest of Iran. The isolates were st...

RESUMO A habilidade de insetos picadores-sugadores em transmitir doenças para as plantas está intimamente relacionada ao modo de alimentação e ao tecido alvo. Os percevejos são considerados de importância econômica mínima como vetores de patógenos de plantas, embora tenham comportamento alimentar semelhante aos homópteros. Os modos de alimentação em Heteroptera incluem “dilaceração e bombeament...

A leaf blight of carrot (Daucus carota) caused by Alternaria dauci was found in Alentejo (Ourique, Portugal). Morphological characteristics of the fungus are described.

We consider a plant–pathogen interaction model and perform a bifurcation analysis at the threshold where the pathogen–free equilibrium loses its hyperbolicity. We show that a stimulatory–inhibitory host response to infection load may be responsible for the occurrence of multiple steady states via backward bifurcations. We also find sufficient conditions for the global stability of the pathogen–...

The cuticle provides a physical barrier against water loss and protects against irradiation, xenobiotics, and pathogens. Components of the cuticle are perceived by invading fungi and activate developmental processes during pathogenesis. In addition, cuticle alterations of various types induce a syndrome of reactions that often results in resistance to necrotrophs. This article reviews the curre...

Several examples, some spectacular, are available of successful applications of weed biocontrol approaches with plant pathogenic agents in agricultural and rangeland situations. The overall percentage rate of success of all such programs attempted cannot yet be documented, however. Both the "mycoherbicide" method, in which large quantities of inoculum are directly applied to target plants, and ...

Plant pathogens cause mortality and reduce fecundity of individual plants, drive host population dynamics, and affect the structure and composition of natural plant communities. Pathogens are responsible for both numerical changes in host populations and evolutionary changes through selection for resistant genotypes. Linking such ecological and evolutionary dynamics has been the focus of a grow...

Fungi and oomycetes include deep and diverse lineages of eukaryotic plant pathogens. The last 10 years have seen the sequencing of the genomes of a multitude of species of these so-called filamentous plant pathogens. Already, fundamental concepts have emerged. Filamentous plant pathogen genomes tend to harbor large repertoires of genes encoding virulence effectors that modulate host plant proce...

Accurate plant disease diagnoses and rapid detection and identification of plant pathogens are of utmost importance for controlling plant diseases and mitigating the economic losses they incur. Technological advances have increasingly simplified the tools available for the identification of pathogens to the extent that, in some cases, this can be done directly by growers and producers themselve...