Communications in Agricultural and Applied Biological Sciences

Investigation throughout the subsequent years of 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 indicated that chaff scale, P. pegandii is an important economic pest on citrus trees in Abou El-Matamer area, El-Beheira Governorate, Egypt. It has been recorded in relatively high rates all over the year on three citrus varieties called Succari, Baladi and Navel oranges. Field observation and recorded data revealed that the common abundance was recorded for chaff scale on Succari oranges followed by Navel oranges then the least abundant on Baladi oranges...

A high number of side-effects trials were developed and carried out on beneficial insects and mites by the 'Side-effects on beneficial organisms' IOBC working group and subsequently published in the IOBC bulletins over a number of years. In general, these tests were mainly carried out under laboratory and/or semi-field conditions following the very worst case scenario applications, leading to an IOBC classification of 3 (moderately toxic) and 4 (harmful) for many of the tested compounds However, feedback from applications under practical conditions, often indicated that the published results were far from realism for a number of compounds...

Observations on population density of plant parasitic nematodes occurring in rhizosphere of broad bean cultivated in the crop rotation and long-term monoculture were performed during 2013-2014. 13 species were observed: Trichodorus primitivus, T. viruliferus, Paratrichodorus pachydermus, Criconema annuliferum, Paratylenchus projectus, Bitylenchus dubius, Merlinius brevidens, Pratylenchus fallax, P. flakkensis, P. neglectus, Heterodera triffolii, H. goettingiana, and Ditylenchus dipsaci. In monoculture plots 70-80% of eggs inside Heterodera cysts were colonized by pathogenic fungi (v...

Darkwinged fungus gnat Bradysia coprophila Lintner (Diptera: Sciaridae) is known as a pest of ornamental plants in commercial green and glass houses in nurseries worldwide. There have been reports about significant Bradysia coprophila damage of succulent plants in five Botanical gardens in Ukraine, including Academician Fomin's Botanical garden (Kiev) for the last three years. In pot experiments the commercial strain of S.feltiae to control B. coprophila was tested on Mammilaria, Opuntia, Echinocerus plants grown individually in plastic pots at rate 500,000 IJs/m²...

Sustainable production of food, feed and fiberwarrants sustainable soil management and crop protection. The tools available to achieve this are both in the realm of the plants and of the soil, with a key role for plant-soil interactions. At the plant level we have vast knowledge of variation within plant species with respect to pests and diseases, based on which we can breed for resistance. However, given that systems evolve this resistance is bound to be temporarily, hence also other strategies are needed...

Iran is one of the most important potato-producing countries in Asia and Oceania. Approximately 20 percent of potato cultivation in Iran occurs in the North-western provinces. Pectobacterium and Dickeya species cause important diseases in potato crop. They may incite blackleg and are responsible for tuber soft rot in storage, thereby reducing yield and quality. In order to identify and differentiate the species of soft rot bacteria, potato stems and tubers showing soft rot symptoms were collected from potato fields in North-western Iran...

Biosolarisation consists of combining solarisation and organic matter application for controlling soilborne pathogens. The effects of this control strategy on the microbial community is almost unknown and needs to be investigated with molecular tools. The aim of the research was to investigate how biosolarisation can affect the structure of the microbial populations evaluated by a culture independent method using DGGE of PCR-amplified 18S-ITS genes-coding fragments from DNA extracted directly from infested substrate...

Galia melons are produced in southeast Spain and exported to other European countries. The main problem of melons during transport and storage consists of the development of epiphytic populations of fungi living inside the netting areas located on fruit surface. These areas are natural wounds which are covered by local suberin and lignin secretion induced by the plant in response to the natural skin wounds which occurs during fruit growing. These fungi are growing from the scarce organic matter and nutrients that are either deposited or segregated from the fruit...

Mycosphaerella graminicola is a hemibiotrophic fungus that causes Septoria tritici blotch (STB), one of the most serious foliar diseases of wheat. STB can occur with a wide range of disease levels on the host, which depend not only on the pathogenicity of fungal strains, but also on the resistance of host cultivars. Here, we investigated the association between the disease level and fungal cell-wall degrading enzyme and protease activities in three wheat cultivars differing in their resistance levels against M...

Septoria tritici blotch caused by Mycosphaerella graminicola (anamorph: Zymoseptoria tritici) is currently the most devastating disease on wheat crops worldwide, especially in regions with suitable climate conditions such as Western Europe. Pathogen control relies mainly on the use of fungicides and resistant cultivars. However, the durability of chemical and genetic control strategies is increasingly compromised in the field since the fungus frequently develops resistance to fungicides and overcomes host resistance...

Mycosphaerella graminicola (anamorph: Zymoseptoria tritici, formerly Septoria tritici), the responsible for Septoria tritici blotch, is the most frequently occurring disease on wheat crops worldwide. The populations of this pathogen were previously characterized in several areas around the world, but not in Algeria so far. The present study aims thus at investigating the genetic diversity and population structure of M. graminicola in this country. One hundred and twenty monoconidial isolates of this fungus (60 from bread wheat and 60 from durum wheat) were collected during the 2012 growing season from five distinct geographical locations in Algeria...

Mathematical models on properties and behavior of harmful organisms in the food chain are an increas- ingly relevant approach of the agriculture and food industry. As a consequence, there are many efforts to develop biological models in science, economics and risk assessment nowadays. However, there is a lack of international harmonized standards on model annotation and model formats, which would be neces- sary to set up efficient tools supporting broad model application and information exchange. There are some established standards in the field of systems biology, but there is currently no corresponding provi- sion in the area of plant protection...

The wall-less bacteria of the provisory taxon 'Candidatus Phytoplasma' are obligate parasites and associated to diseases in many important crops and trees worldwide. 'Ca. Phytoplasma ulmi', assigned to 16SrV-A subgroup, is a quarantine pest and described to be associated to elm phloem necrosis, leaf yellowing, stunting, witches broom and decline in various elm species. Elm yellows phytoplasmas (EY) have been reported in several European countries but not in Ulmus laevis in Germany so far. Leaf samples from European white elms (Ulmus leavis PALL...

Internal fruit rot of sweet pepper grown in glasshouses has been an increasing problem worldwide since around 2000. In the UK, surveys in 2007 showed infected fruits were present in many crops at levels from 1 to 37%. The disease causes some losses on production nurseries but more importantly also causes rejection by packers and complaints by supermarkets. Losses vary greatly between crops and seasons, and growers are generally unaware a problem may be present until harvest or postharvest. The fruit rot arises through infection of flowers (Yang et al...

Grass seed crops (ryegrass), a minor crop in Belgium, should be managed more intensively and in an arable way, comparable with the intensive wheat culture. Even more important than higher seed yields are stable, higher yields over time, Integrated pest management (IPM) forms the framework around this intensification. Two similar seed production field trials--one with perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) and one with Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum L.)--were conducted in 2014, dealing with 4 SDHI fungicides (bixafen, boscalid, fluxapyroxad and isopyrazam) that were compared with an untreated control and some reference treatments...

Pollen microbial content of 15 samples was investigated. Pollen was collected by honeybees. Total aerobic mesophilic count ranged from 3.00 to 5.48 Log CFU/g. Total mold and yeast count ranged from 2.3 to 6.99 Log CFU/g. Selected strains of isolated molds from pollen samples were characterized by conventional methods. Potent phytopathogenic and food spoilage species such as Penicillium sp., Alternaria alternata, Alternaria sp., Cladosporium werneckii, Mucor hiemalis, Rhizomucor pusillus, Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger, Drechslera tritici-repentis, Verticillium albo-atrum, and Aspergillus alliaceus were recovered...

A total of 40 actinomycetes isolated from rhizosphere soils of Ononis angustissima Lam. were in vitro tested for their antagonism against deferent pathogenic microorganisms by streak assay. Among the isolates, four (21, 2A26, 1B10 and 2C34) present a potent antagonism against both pathogenic bacteria and fungi, they were selected, identified by 16S rDNA sequence analysis and phenotypic properties, and tested for their antimicrobial activity as well as their biocontrol potential against Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L...

The objectives of the study were to assess the infection level of Fusarium head blight (FHB) in different spring barley and oat cultivars and to specify the spectrum of Fusarium species of Latvian population found in the ear samples of spring barley and oat. Molecular analysis of single-conidium isolates of Fusarium species from the grain samples in different sites of Latvia revealed the presence of F. acuminatum, F. avenaceum, F. boothii, F. culmorum, F. graminearum, F. poae, F. sporotrichioides, and F. tricinctum in Latvian population of Fusarium species associated with FHB in spring barley...

Hydroponic systems used for growing potted ornamentals in greenhouses are commonly ebb-and-flow irrigation systems. The drainage water is usually recycled to save water and nutrients. To avoid the spread of pathogens in these closed irrigation systems, disinfection of the recycled water is standard practice. Growers can use slow sand filtration or UV-radiation techniques, but these methods are often either not sulted for specific problems or they require an excessively large investment. The objective of this study was to test less expensive but effective alternative disinfection systems...

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