Activation of Plant Immune System in Sustainable Plant Protection

A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Pest and Disease Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2021) | Viewed by 2279

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection, IPSP-Bari Unit, Department of Biology, Agricultural and Food Sciences, DISBA, National Council of Research, CNR, 70126 Bari, Italy
Interests: plant immune system; plant pests; biochemistry; immunology; nematodes; oxygen metabolism
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

No durable crop protection strategy will be effective in the long term if the health of the soil and the quality of the irrigation water of the monitored cropping systems are not carefully taken into consideration in any integrated pest management. The vitality of the soil is crucial to activating plant defense reactions to a relevant number of biotic challenges. The scientific community has long ago acknowledged that such multiple defense reactions are organized by a specific plant immune system, which, like the human immune system, can be activated or depressed. The activation of the immune system of plants should be pursued by enriching the soil of the fields, particularly those intensively cropped, with beneficial microorganisms, such as arbuscular mycorrhiza forming fungi (AMF), bio-control fungi (i.e., Trichoderma spp.) and plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR). Some natural plant metabolites, such as phytohormones and polyphenols, can also be considered as plant activators against diseases and parasites. Therefore, this Special Issue will collect papers focusing on a holistic approach to durable crop protection strategies that consider the very complex relationships occurring between plants, with or without a genetic background of pest tolerance and resistance, soils, beneficial micro-organisms, environment, beneficial insects, chemical activators, VOCs, etc. The outcome of these relationships determines the severity of the damage caused by a vast array of biotic attackers (bacteria, fungi, viruses, oomycetes, nematodes, insects, etc.). An additional factor that should be considered is climate change and its impact on possible outbreaks of dormant and alien pests.

Dr. Sergio Molinari
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • arbuscular mychorriza fungi
  • biocontrol fungi
  • IPM
  • PGPR
  • phytohormones
  • plant immune system
  • secondary plant metabolites
  • sustainable plant protection

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

11 pages, 595 KiB  
Article
Factors Determining the Variability of Performance of Bio-Control Agents against Root-Knot Nematodes in Vegetable Plants
by Sergio Molinari
Agronomy 2021, 11(8), 1602; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11081602 - 12 Aug 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1755
Abstract
The application of management strategies against plant-parasitic nematodes (PPNs), an alternative to the use of toxic nematicides, has become of paramount importance due to the recognized environmental impact. Pre-treatments with bio-control agents (BCAs), such as bio-control fungi (BCF, Trichoderma spp.) and arbuscular mycorrhizal [...] Read more.
The application of management strategies against plant-parasitic nematodes (PPNs), an alternative to the use of toxic nematicides, has become of paramount importance due to the recognized environmental impact. Pre-treatments with bio-control agents (BCAs), such as bio-control fungi (BCF, Trichoderma spp.) and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), have been proved to protect many crop plants from endoparasitic sedentary nematodes (ESNs), the most damaging PPN group. However, the use of commercial BCA formulates is not always successful because of an array of variables that influence their performance. One AMF-based and 2 BCF-based commercial formulates were used as soil-drench pre-treatments to protect tomato, egg, and pepper plants from ESN attack. High variability of performance occurred according to the growth stage of treated plants and the amounts of formulates provided per plant. All formulates were highly effective in reducing both root-knot (RKN) and potato cyst (PCN) nematode infection when plants had reached an intermediate growth stage (3.5–5 g plant weight at treatment). However, only specific ranges of doses had to be used. Lower doses were ineffective against nematode attack; higher doses were often toxic to plants. When plants were grown from seeding in BCA-enriched soil, priming against RKNs was even more active. If plants were not challenged by nematodes, BCAs had a low bio-fertilizer effect. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Activation of Plant Immune System in Sustainable Plant Protection)
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