Sclerotium rolfsii Sacc causing foot rot disease which is one of the major limiting factor for betelvine cultivation in Bangladesh. In this study, we have evaluated the antifungal activity of medicinal plant extracts, chemical fungicides, and antagonistic fungal isolates on mycelial growth of Sclerotium rolfsii. Among the tested medicinal plants, the highest percent inhibition was exhibited by leaf extracts of Datura metel and Lowsonia inermis L. in all three solvents (aqueous; ethanol and acetone) and concentrations. The chemicals fungicides - Bavistin DF (Carbendazim) and Dithane M-45 (Mancozeb), effectively inhibited the growth of the S. rolfsii. However, at lower concentrations, other tested fungicides were found to be less effective. Among the six biological control agents, Trichoderma harzianum showed the highest percent inhibition of radial growth of S. rolfsii. The secondary metabolites of T. harzianum and T. viride significantly reduced the mycelial growth of S. rolfsii.

The study investigated the effects of the interaction between Meloidogyne incognita and Cowpea mild mottle virus on soybean cultivars. Two weeks after planting, treatments were applied to the plants in both the screenhouse and field trials as listed; single inoculation of 5,000 eggs of M. incognita on roots of soybean seedlings, single inoculation of leaves of soybean seedlings with CPMMV sap, mixed inoculation 5,000 eggs of M. incognita on roots of soybean seedlings 2 days before inoculating leaves with CPMMV sap, mixed inoculation of leaves of soybean seedlings with crude CPMMV sap 2 days before inoculating plant roots with 5,000 eggs of M. incognita, simultaneous inoculation of leaves of soybean seedlings with crude CPMMV sap and plant roots with 5,000 eggs of M. incognita, and uninoculated plants (control). Data were collected on plant height, number of leaves showing symptoms, grain weight and nematode populations. The results showed that combined inoculations of CPMMV and M. incognita reduced the population density of the nematode and increased the growth and grain yields of M. incognita infected soybean cultivars. It also revealed that plants inoculated with the nematode at 2 days before the virus was inoculated significantly reduced growth and yields of soybean and increased nematode population densities compared to single infections and other combined infections.

The productivity of potato in Colombia is below its potential due to continued agronomical malpractices that have resulted in a high prevalence of pathogens, particularly viruses. This work presents a pilot virus seed-indexing study using the tuber sprouting test (TST) with RT-qPCR. TST was performed in certified and uncertified seed-tuber lots of potato cultivars: Diacol Capiro and Criolla Colombia. Results indicate that PYVV and PMTV are highly prevalent in all seed lots from both cultivars; PLRV, PVY, and PVB are highly prevalent in cv. Diacol Capiro, but mostly absent in cv. Criolla Colombia; PVV is almost exclusively found in cv. Criolla Colombia; while PVS and PVX are found at low prevalence in cv. Diacol Capiro. Multiple infections were common in both cultivars, and no uninfected tubers were identified. The effect of virus distribution on testing was also investigated, and a preliminary sampling method for certification of seed lots is proposed.

Soil-borne pathogen Sclerotium rolfsii Sacc attacks several crops in Morocco. Studies were initiated to assess the potential of soil solarization, alone or combined with two organic amendments, namely compost and sheep manure, on the viability of S. rolfsii sclerotia. In the 4 and 6 weeks microplots experiment the highest soil temperature recorded was 59.3 °C in the solarized plots. Treatments from solarized plots with compost was significantly (p < 0.05) reduced germination and viability of sclerotia than other treatments, with a germination reduction rate of sclerotia (GRRS) of 100%, 93.4% and 53.6% at 5, 10 and 20 cm soil depth respectively. The field trial lasted 2 months and the germination rate of sclerotia (GRS) of plots solarized with compost, with sheep manure and those non-solarized/non-amended was 10.25%, 15.38% and 80.19% respectively. The results suggest that soil solarization combined with organic amendments proves to be effective in the control of S. rolfsii.

Symptoms of severe leaf curling, typical of begomovirus infection, were observed on a plant of Brugmansia arborea grown in lawns of Quaid-i-Azam university Islamabad, Pakistan. A begomovirus and its associated betasatellite were amplified and sequenced from infected plants. Nucleotide sequence showed that a monopartite begomovirus named Chilli leaf curl virus (ChLCV) and Chilli leaf curl betasatellite (ChLCB) are associated with the disease and it shared highest sequence identity 99% and 91% respectively with previously reported clones. Our data adds to recent reports that show an expansion of the host range of begomovirus-betasatellite complexes in the Old World.

This study evaluated the efficacy of various salts against Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. melongenae (Fomg) in vitro and in vivo bioassays. Ammonium bicarbonate/carbonate, potassium benzoate/sorbate, sodium benzoate/carbonate/metabisulphite at 2.0% entirely halted mycelial growth and spore germination of the fungus. Considering the EC50, minimum inhibitory concentration, and minimum fungicidal concentration values of the salts, sodium metabisulphite was more toxic to the fungus. In soil bioassays, at 0.4% and 0.6%, sodium metabisulphite and potassium sorbate reduced the mycelial growth of the fungus by 98.89%. However, in the soil/seed germination bioassays, potassium sorbate and sodium carbonate at 0.05–0.1% concentrations had a much lower inhibitory effect on root elongation compared to the others. The two salts may be possible to reduce the number of traditional fungicides required by integrating them with disease management strategies. However, the possibility of including inorganic salts in programs to treat fungal diseases requires further research in the greenhouse conditions.

A total of 486 symptomatic and asymptomatic peach leaf samples were collected from Bursa, Bilecik, and Bolu provinces and tested for plum pox virus (PPV, Potyvirus) in response to recent reports on the new divergent subgroup MIs in the nearby Istanbul province of Turkey. The phylogenetic analysis of newly sequenced isolates indicated that two isolates from Bolu belong to subgroup MIs, confirming the existence of its isolates beyond Istanbul. Both Bolu MIs isolates cross-reacted with a mixture of polyclonal antibodies and monoclonal 5B-IVIA in a commercial DAS-ELISA kit for universal detection of PPV strains, elucidating some of MIs serological characters. The identity percentage, and also the evolutionary distance and diversity analyses showed that M isolates shared high genetic identities among them, and that the diversity among its subgroups was also low. Therefore, the results showed that MIs is not a new distinct strain but a variant of strain M. Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/03235408.2022.2052523 .

In this study, PLANT TONIC9 (EOX-SOV) was screened for its in vitro efficacy against some fungal species. PLANT TONIC9 significantly inhibited the mycelial growth and conidial germination of all tested species as compared with untreated control. The highest mycelial growth and conidial germination inhibition percentage was recorded for Monilinia species while the lowest inhibition percentage was recorded for Rosellinia sp. The lowest minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) value was observed against Monilinia fructigena and Monilinia fructicola followed by Monilinia laxa and Botrytis cinerea. Also the in vivo efficacy of PLANT TONIC9 against M. laxa was investigated. Application of PLANT TONIC9 significantly reduced the severity and incidence of brown rot disease on apple as compared with the control. PLANT TONIC9 treatments were also successful to retain the size, specific gravity, and shelf life of tested fruits and to decrease their spoilage percentage over the experimental period as compared with the control.

In this study, FCR-symptomatic samples from the north-east of Algeria were collected. Macroscopic data and microscopic characteristics were used to identify the 23 isolates, which were then confirmed by molecular identification. NCBI GenBank assigned the accession number MW358286 to isolate FC14, which was identified as Fusarium cerealis. Under controlled conditions, two pathogenicity tests were performed on nine bread wheat cultivars (cv). The first one is an in vitro test in the growth chamber. The second one, in vivo test in the greenhouse. The results revealed that all cultivars were susceptible to FC14, and that F. cerealis reduced germination and coleoptile emergence rates significantly, with GI% and AUDPC values of 38.09% and 49.58% for cv. Boumerzoug, respectively. With cv. Bordj Mehis, F. cerealis decreased the RCL% and RCW% by 50.71% and 60.70%, respectively. The presence of F. cerealis species as an agent causing FCR was identified for the first time in Algeria.