Cercosporin is a non-host-selective, perylenequinone toxin produced by many phytopathogenic Cercospora species. The involvement of Ca(2+)/calmodulin (CaM) signaling in cercosporin biosynthesis was investigated by using pharmacological inhibitors. The results suggest that maintaining endogenous Ca(2+) homeostasis is required for cercosporin biosynthesis in Cercospora nicotianae. The addition of ...

Transgenic potato and tobacco plants carrying the osmotin gene under the control of the cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter constitutively overexpressed osmotin to a level of approximately 2% of total cellular protein. Leaves of transgenic potato plants exhibited delayed development of disease symptoms after inoculation with spore suspensions of Phytophthora infestans, which is the cause of l...

Zambounis A., Samaras A., Xanthopoulou A., Osathanunkul M., Schena L., Tsaftaris A., Madesis P. (2016): Identification of Phytophthora species by a high resolution melting analysis: an innovative tool for rapid differentiation. Plant Protect. Sci., 52. A new molecular method via the high resolution melting (HRM) analysis of the Ypt1 gene non-coding regions was validated for ten Phytophthora spe...

The microbiome associated with crop plants has a strong impact on their health and productivity. Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (Las), the bacterial pathogen responsible for Huanglongbing (HLB) disease, lives inside the phloem of citrus plants including the root system. It has been suggested that Las negatively affects citrus microbiome. On the other hand, members of citrus microbiome also i...