AIMS To examine whether water activity (aw) in combination with low concentration of fungicides can be used to effectively control Aspergillus niger van Tieghem growth in cultural medium, the Sabouraud dextrose agar (SDA). The data would be used as baseline information for reducing A. niger contamination in insect artificial diets. METHODS AND RESULTS Aspergillus niger was isolated from an in...

Abstract Seed-borne bacterial pathogens cause severe yield loss and biotoxin contamination in rice, leading to increasing concern on the global food supply environmental safety. Plant native microbes play an important role defending against diseases, but their actions are often influenced by chemical fungicides applied field. Here, Bacillus licheniformis mmj was isolated from rice spikelet, whi...

There is widespread use of chemical amendments to meet the demands for increased productivity in agriculture. Potentially toxic compounds, single or in mixtures, are added to the soil medium on a regular basis, while the ecotoxicological risk assessment procedures mainly follow a chemical by chemical approach. Picoxystrobin is a fungicide that has caused concern due to studies showing potential...

A decision support system (DSS) for potato and tom ato late blight m anagem ent has been developed to provide disease m anagem ent recom m endations. The system is com prised of two disease-forecasting tools as well as a simulator. Results from simulation and field experim ents w ith the system have shown that the DSS schedules on moderately susceptible crops did not achieve sufficient disease ...

BACKGROUND A number of synthetic fungicides are not effective when confronted by oomycete pathogens because many fungicide targets are absent from oomycetes. Moreover, resistance to fungicides has already arisen in oomycete species, and thus development of new, effective and safe compounds for use in oomycete disease control is necessary. RESULTS Zoospore lysis began at 10 microg mL(-1) of th...

Mutualistic interactions with fungal endophytes and dinitrogen-fixing bacteria are known to exert key biological influences on the host plant. The influence of a fungal endophyte alkaloid on the toxicity of a plant has been documented in Oxytropis sericea. Oxytropis sericea is a perennial legume responsible for livestock poisoning in western North America. Livestock poisoning is attributed to t...