Fungi and plants are rich sources of thousands of secondary metabolites. The genetically coded possibilities for secondary metabolite production, the stimuli of the production, and the special phytotoxins basically determine the microscopic fungi-host plant interactions and the pathogenic lifestyle of fungi. The review introduces plant secondary metabolites usually with antifungal effect as wel...

Species of the oomycete genus Phytophthora are destructive pathogens, causing extensive losses in agricultural crops and natural ecosystems. A potential disease control approach is the application of RNA silencing technology which has proven to be effective in improving plant resistance against a wide range of pests including parasitic plants, nematodes, insects and fungi. In this study, we tes...

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...

A possible strategy to control plant pathogens is the improvement of natural plant defense mechanisms against the tools that pathogens commonly use to penetrate and colonize the host tissue. One of these mechanisms is represented by the host plant's ability to inhibit the pathogen's capacity to degrade plant cell wall polysaccharides. Polygalacturonase-inhibiting proteins (PGIP) are plant defen...

BACKGROUND Sugarcane is one of the most important crops in Brazil, mainly because of its use in biofuel production. Recent studies have sought to determine the role of sugarcane endophytic microbial diversity in microorganism-plant interactions, and their biotechnological potential. Epicoccum nigrum is an important sugarcane endophytic fungus that has been associated with the biological control...

Bacteriophages are an attractive tool for application in the therapy of bacterial infections, for biological control of bacterial contamination of foodstuffs in the alimentary industry, in plant protection, for control of water-borne pathogens, and control of environmental microflora. This review is mainly focused on structures governing phage recognition of host cell and mechanisms of phage ad...

on the basis of preliminary in vitro screening tests, a competent strain of pantoea agglomerans ena1 (p. agg. ena1) recovered from soybean nodule was evaluated for its antagonistic activity against macrophomina phaseolina causal agent of charcoal rot of soybean. the results of various in vitro assays showed that p. agg. ena1 is capable of exerting strong antagonistic effect against m. phaseolin...