The plant Solanum nigrum treated with the pathogen Phytophthora infestans-derived elicitor responded by elevated reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, lipid peroxidation and lipoxygenase (EC 1.13.11.12) activity in comparison with control plants indicating that oxidative stress took place. We demonstrate that these events are accompanied by a significant increase in plastoquinone (PQ) level...

Evidence for the localization of extracellular pectinesterases was obtained in hyphae of Phytophthora infestans with the antibody protein A gold technique. Hyphae were fixed in I % formaldehyde and 0.5 % glutaraldehyde, and the immunocytochemical localization was done on ultrathin sections of tissue embedded at low temperature in Lowicryl K4M. Gold particles were mainly present over three diffe...

The Columbia Basin of south-central Washington and north-central Oregon is a major potato-growing region in North America where more than 65,000 ha of potatoes are grown annually. The environment is semiarid (mean rainfall is between 15 and 22.5 cm), and the potato crop is irrigated mostly by center-pivot systems. Although the Columbia Basin is semiarid, potato production is annually threatened...

Genome sequences of several economically important phytopathogenic oomycetes have revealed the presence of large families of so-called RXLR effectors. Functional screens have identified RXLR effector repertoires that either compromise or induce plant defense responses. However, limited information is available about the molecular mechanisms underlying the modes of action of these effectors in p...

The aim of this study was to evaluate plant extracts for antifungal activities against Phythopthora infestans (Mont.) de Bary, an important pathogen of potato which causes late blight disease. Acetone, ethyl acetate and water extracts of garlic (Allium sativum L.), Pawpaw (Carica papaya), Neem (Azadirachta indica), Mexican marigold (Tagetes minuta) and peri –winkle (Vinca rosea) were screened i...

The world potato is facing major economic losses due to disease pressure and environmental concerns regarding pesticides use. This work aims at addressing these two issues by isolating indigenous bacteria that can be integrated into pest management strategies. More than 2,800 strains of Bacillus-like and Pseudomonas-like were isolated from several soils and substrates associated with potato agr...

Since the leaf apoplast is a primary habitat for many plant pathogens, apoplastic proteins are potent, ancient targets for apoplastic effectors secreted by plant pathogens. So far, however, only a few apoplastic effector targets have been identified and characterized. Here, we discovered that the papain-like cysteine protease C14 is a new common target of EPIC1 and EPIC2B, two apoplastic, cysta...