Faculty Opinions recommendation of NPR1 as a transgenic crop protection strategy in horticultural species.

Fusarium head blight (FHB) is a plant disease with serious economic and health impacts. It is caused by fungal species belonging to the genus Fusarium and the mycotoxins they produce. Although it has proved difficult to combat this disease, one strategy that has been examined is the introduction of an indigenous fungal protective gene into cereals such as wheat barley and rice. Thus far the gene of choice has been tri101 whose gene product catalyzes the transfer of an acetyl group from acetyl coenzyme A to the C3 hydroxyl moiety of several trichothecene mycotoxins. In vitro this has been shown to reduce the toxicity of the toxins by ∼100-fold but has demonstrated limited resistance to FHB in transgenic cereal. To understand the molecular basis for the differences between in vitro and in vivo resistance the three-dimensional structures and kinetic properties of two TRI101 orthologs isolated from Fusarium sporotrichioides and Fusarium graminearum have been determined. The kinetic results reveal important differences in activity of these enzymes toward B-type trichothecenes such as deoxynivalenol. These differences in activity can be explained in part by the three-dimensional structures for the ternary complexes for both of these enzymes with coenzyme A and trichothecene mycotoxins. The structural and kinetic results together emphasize that the choice of an enzymatic resistance gene in transgenic crop protection strategies must take into account the kinetic profile of the selected protein.

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HACC-Based Nanoscale Delivery of the NbMLP28 Plasmid as a Crop Protection Strategy for Viral Diseases

ACS Omega ◽

10.1021/acsomega.1c05295 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Daoshun Zhang ◽

Liyun Song ◽

Zhonglong Lin ◽

Kun Huang ◽

Chunming Liu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Crop Protection ◽

Viral Diseases ◽

Protection Strategy

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Ecology of Diaporthe eres, the causal agent of hazelnut defects

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0247563 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (3) ◽

pp. e0247563

Author(s):

Roberta Arciuolo ◽

Marco Camardo Leggieri ◽

Giorgio Chiusa ◽

Giuseppe Castello ◽

Giuseppe Genova ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Incubation Period ◽

Biological Process ◽

Abiotic Factors ◽

Crop Protection ◽

Fungal Growth ◽

Visual Observation ◽

Causal Agent ◽

Protection Strategy ◽

Asexual Spore ◽

Regression Functions

Diaporthe eres has been recently reported as the causal agent of hazelnut defects, with characteristic brown spots on the kernels surface and internal fruit discoloration. Knowledge regarding the ecology of this fungus is poor but, is critical to support a rationale and effective hazelnut crop protection strategy. Therefore, a study was performed to describe and model the effect of different abiotic factors such as temperature (T, 5–35°C, step 5°C) and water activity (aw 0.83–0.99, step 0.03) regimes on D. eres mycelial growth, pycnidial conidiomata development and asexual spore production during a 60-day incubation period. Alpha conidia germination was tested in the same T range and at different relative humidities (RH = 94, 97 and 100%) over 48 h incubation period. Fungal growth was observed from the first visual observation; regarding pycnidia and cirrhi, their development started after 8 and 19 days of incubation, respectively and increased over time. The optimum T for growth was 20–25°C and for pycnidia and cirrhi development was 30°C; aw ≥ 0.98 was optimal for the tested steps of the fungal cycle. The best condition for conidial germination of D. eres was at 25°C with RH = 100%. Quantitative data obtained were fitted using non- linear regression functions (Bete, logistic and polynomial), which provided a very good fit of the biological process (R2 = 0.793–0.987). These functions could be the basis for the development of a predictive model for the infection of D. eres of hazelnuts.

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