Multiple treatment meta-analysis of products evaluated for control of fire blight in the eastern United States

The aim of this analysis was to estimate the effect sizes and consistency of products evaluated for fire blight control in the eastern United States over the last decade. Because only 3% of the 69 studies published from 2000 to 2008 explicitly presented a measure of within-study variability, a method for estimating the least significant difference (LSD) and, hence the sampling variance, for studies with at least two significant mean separations in the presented mean multiple comparisons was developed. Lin's concordance analysis indicated that the estimated LSD was an accurate predictor of the actual LSD based on 35 studies in a calibration evaluation (ρ(c) = 0.997). Separate multi-treatment random-effects meta-analyses were performed for three control categories: antibiotics, biological control, and plant defense-activating products and mean log response ratios relative to the nontreated controls ([Formula: see text]) were computed for each treatment and then back-transformed to obtain the mean percent disease control. None of the products evaluated performed as well as streptomycin, the standard product for fire blight control, for which the mean disease control was 68.6%. As a group, experimental antibiotics provided the best fire blight control with mean effect sizes ranging from 59.7 to 61.7%. Among the biological controls, the best control was noted for treatments combining the antibiotic streptomycin with a product based on Pantoea agglomerans (55.0% mean disease reduction) or Bacillus subtilis (53.9%). Mean disease control was 31.9, 25.7, and 22.6%, respectively, for products based on B. subtilis, Pantoea agglomerans, and Pseudomonas fluorescens without an antibiotic, suggesting that the higher efficacy of the combination treatments was due to the antibiotic. Among the plant defense-activating products, prohexadione calcium had the highest and most consistent effect size (50.7% control), while other products provided modest mean disease control of between 6.1 and 25.8%. Percent control values were significantly moderated by study location and cultivar used in the study, and were smaller, but more variable, when products were tested under high disease intensity compared with low disease intensity. Results indicate that wide-scale use of biological control and plant defense-activating products in the eastern United States is likely to remain low.     

Control of rice sheath blight by phyllosphere epiphytic microbial antagonists

Epiphytic microorganisms on the phyllosphere of traditional and high-yielding rice varieties were isolated from different agroecological zones of Sri Lanka and screened for theirin vitro andin vivo antagonism againstRhizoctonia solani Kühn AG-1 1A, the sheath blight pathogen of rice. Among a total of 196 bacterial and 91 fungal isolates, 12 bacterial and two fungal isolates which showed more than 50% growth inhibition ofR. solani were tested for theirin vivo antagonism. Among the 14 antagonists tested, six bacterial and one fungal isolate substantially reduced the incidence of sheath blight (by more than 82%) and severity (by more than 92%) of the rice varieties BG94-1 and IR8 grown in a pot experiment under open field conditions. Using five antagonists that showed the bestin vitro antagonism, a pot experiment was conducted to determine whether the presence of indigenous microflora on the rice sheath had any effect on the effectiveness of antagonism. Three isolates (B4, GbB5 and HMWB4) controlled sheath blight incidence and severity equally well in the presence and absence of indigenous microflora. Two isolates (BG352B1 and BG300B1) were more effective when they were introduced into the rice sheath without indigenous microflora. Among the effective antagonists determined by the pot experiment, isolates B4, B16, BG94-1B5, GbB5, HMWB4 and BG379-F2 were tested under field conditions for two consecutive growing seasons. Under field conditions, severity of rice sheath blight was significantly reduced by the application of all the tested antagonists as a spray on rice sheath at a concentration of 10⁸ cfu ml⁻¹, starting 3 days after the development of symptoms and continuing for three applications at 10-day intervals. Antagonistic performances were consistent in the two seasons under field conditions andB. megatarium A (isolate B16) andAspergillus niger (isolate BG379-F2) performed as the most effective antagonists in both seasons. When disease severity was quantified as percentage sheath area covered by the disease lesions, the respective reductions in disease severity were greater than 50% and 61% byB. megaterium A (isolate B16) andAspergillus niger (isolate BG379-F2), respectively, in both seasons. http://www.phytoparasitica.org posting Jan. 10, 2008.     

Heat treatment of plant propagation material for the control of fire blight

The thermal sensitivity of Erwinia amylovora was determined at 45° C and 50°C. In vitro assays with eight differetit strains showed that thermal death times did not exceed 70min at 45° C and 50min at 50° C (95% confidence interval). Heat treatments of naturally infected apple and pear shoots were performed using a moist and a dry heat procedure. When shoots were wrapped in wet cotton cloths (wet heat) and maintained in an incubator, no bacterial growth could be detected after an incubation of 5 h at 45° C. When shoots were sealed in polyethylene bags and immersed in water (dry heat), no Erwinia amytovora could be isolated after an immersion of 3 h at 45° C. Incubation at 50°C for 1 –2h in either condition did not eradicate the pathogen entirely. The failure rate of grafts using budwoods treated at the effective time-temperature combinations did not exceed 25%.
The present investigations showed that the use of thermotherapy techniques for controlling Erwinia amylovora in propagation material of apple and pear might be possible.     

Crab apple blossoms as a model for research on biological control of fire blight

ABSTRACT Nonseasonal availability of pomaceous flowers could improve laboratory detection and prefield testing of biocontrol agents for fire blight of pear and apple. Crab apple was selected as a model because of its high flower productivity on 1-year-old wood, high susceptibility to fire blight, and availability from nurseries. Cultivars Manchurian and Snowdrift were manipulated to bloom once by transferring dormant nursery trees from a cold room to a greenhouse and a second time by defoliating trees and applying 1% cytokinin and 0.1% gibberellins to the buds with a brush. Different sets of trees were induced at different times to bloom, so that flowers were produced 12 months in the year. When known bacterial antagonists (Erwinia herbicola strain C9-1 and Pseudomonas fluorescens strain A506) were applied alone or in combination to the stigmas of detached crab apple blossoms prior to inoculation with the pathogen (E. amylovora strain Ea153), population interactions over time were comparable to those reported in previous studies involving pear or apple. In a subsequent series of experiments, the relative effects of 12 bacterial strains on stigmatic populations of strain Ea153 were similar for detached blossoms of crab apple in the laboratory, blossoms of intact crab apple trees in the greenhouse, and blossoms of pear and apple in the field. Additionally, when stigmas of detached crab apple blossoms were inoculated with antagonists (strains C9-1 and A506) and the pathogen, and later subjected to a 24-h wetting period, bacterial populations in the flower hypanthium increased and disease was suppressed. These studies indicate that crab apple blossoms can serve as a suitable model for year-round evaluation and study of biocontrol agents for fire blight.     

利用蜜蜂传播生防菌防治梨火疫病

梨火疫病由梨火疫病菌（Erwinia amylovora）引起,可以通过蜜蜂授粉传播而加重危害。为做好香梨安全授粉工作,防止因直接放蜂造成梨火疫病的大流行,本研究测试了香梨花上分离的一株解淀粉芽孢杆菌（Bacillus amyloliquefaciens）对梨火疫病菌的拮抗效果,并利用自行研发的“蜜蜂导向盒”进行了蜜蜂传播生防菌防病试验。结果表明“蜜蜂导向盒+生防菌”技术在香梨花期可以有效控制由梨火疫菌引起的花腐和枝枯。     

褐腐病菌三种分子鉴定方法的比较

为了筛选出适用于口岸检疫的、可快速鉴定三种褐腐菌,即美澳型核果褐腐菌(Monilinia fructicola)、核果褐腐菌(M. laxa)和仁果褐腐菌(M. fructigena)的方法,采用Lane等基于形态学特征的方法对采自北京、山东、河北等省市的58株褐腐菌进行了种类鉴定,并以这些菌及三个种的标准菌株为材料比较了已报道的三种分子检测方法的可靠性。研究发现,58株菌中有53株是美澳型核果褐腐菌,2株为核果褐腐菌,3株为仁果褐腐菌。采用Ioos等的PCR方法,从3个标准菌株、53株美澳型核果褐腐菌和2株核果褐腐菌中都只扩增出相应种的特征条带,而从3株仁果褐腐菌中的2株中扩增出了两个种的特征条带。采用Ma等的方法,从美澳型核果褐腐菌标准菌株、采自国内的53株美澳型核果褐腐菌和核果标准菌株中,只扩增到相应种的特征条带,而从采自国内的2株核果褐腐菌株中不仅扩增出了核果褐腐菌的条带还扩增出了美澳型核果褐腐菌的特征条带,3株仁果褐腐菌株产生了核果褐腐菌的特征条带,仁果褐腐菌标准菌株中没有得到产物。采用Cote等的方法,只从16株美澳型核果褐腐菌中扩增出该种的特征条带,从其余菌株(包括标准菌株)中没有获得产物。这些研究结果表明:Ioos等的检测方法可用于检测美澳型核果褐腐菌和核果褐腐菌;Ma等的检测方法可用于检测美澳型核果褐腐菌,而不适用于检测其它两个种;而仁果褐腐菌的分子检测方法需要进一步研究和完善。     

The undiscovered potential of dehydroproline as a fire blight control option

The non‐protein amino acid 3,4‐dehydro‐l ‐proline (DHP) significantly reduced the incidence of fire blight infection on immature pear fruits infected with wildtype Erwinia amylovora. DHP also inhibited biofilm formation in both streptomycin‐sensitive and ‐resistant strains of E. amylovora and induced dispersal of preformed biofilms in the streptomycin‐sensitive strain. The investigations shed light on the hitherto undiscovered ability of DHP to inhibit bacterial biofilms and its potential as a chemical control option for fire blight.     

新疆库尔勒香梨火疫病的发生特点及防控建议

梨火疫病(fire blight)是由解淀粉欧文氏菌Erwinia amylovora引起的蔷薇科果树毁灭性病害。2017年首次在新疆巴音郭楞蒙古自治州发生,对库尔勒香梨产业造成严重危害和经济损失。本文总结5年来库尔勒香梨火疫病发生危害特点,详细描述了病害的田间症状表现,提出了防治建议,并对当前库尔勒香梨火疫病防治中存在的问题进行了讨论。     

12种杀菌剂对杜梨苗梨火疫病的预防与治疗效果测定

梨火疫病是苹果、梨等蔷薇科仁果类植物上一种重要的细菌性病害。为了筛选出有效防治梨火疫病的药剂,本研究采用预防和治疗的方式评价了12种药剂和其中5种药剂3种浓度对盆栽杜梨苗梨火疫病的预防和治疗效果,测定了其中4种药剂对梨火疫病的预防持效期和不同潜伏期的治疗效果。结果表明:预防和治疗效果都高于60%的药剂有6种,其中效果最好的是40%春雷·噻唑锌SC,喷施1 000倍液后2 d的预防效果和接菌后2 d的治疗效果分别达到95.63%和80.55%;不同药剂使用浓度对防效影响较大,5种药剂中只有40%春雷·噻唑锌SC在3种浓度下预防和治疗效果都达到70%以上;4种药剂中40%春雷·噻唑锌SC持效期最长,喷施1 000倍液21 d后预防效果仍能达到51.94%,在病害不同潜伏期的治疗效果最好,接菌后6 d治疗效果仍可达到62.31%。本研究结果为后续田间试验示范和大面积推广应用提供了技术支撑。     

利用Monte-Carlo模拟再评估梨火疫病病菌随水果果实的入侵风险

以梨火疫病随进境苹果果实传入的可能性为例，利用Monte-Carlo模拟方法评估有害生物的入侵风险。按照4种不同场景分别建立B分布来拟合入境水果中感染梨火疫病的比率，利用Pert分布拟合进口量。模拟表明，在4种场景下，最可能出现病害的时间分别为4702、3458、216和105年，在第4种场景即对入境苹果果实无任何检疫要求的情形下，出现发病的最少年份为14年。结果表明，传入风险随入境数量的增加而增加。     

Biological control of fire blight of apple and pear with antagonistic Lactobacillus plantarum

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) can be a source of biological control agents (BCA) of fire blight disease. Several species of LAB are inhabitants of plants and are currently used as biopreservatives of food because of their antagonistic properties against bacteria, and are considered as generally safe. Candidates to BCA were selected from a large collection of LAB strains obtained from plant environments. Strains were first chosen based on the consistency of the suppressive effect against E. amylovora infections in detached plant organs (flowers, fruits and leaves). Lactobacillus plantarum strains PC40, PM411, TC54 and TC92 were effective against E. amylovora in most of the experiments performed. Besides, strains PM411, TC54 and TC92 had strong antagonistic activity against E. amylovora and also other target bacteria, and presented genes involved in plantaricin biosynthesis (plnJ, plnK, plnL, plnR and plnEF). The strains efficiently colonized pear and apple flowers; they maintained stable populations for at least 1 week under high RH conditions, and survived at low RH conditions. They were effective in preventing fire blight on pear flowers, fruits and leaves, as well as in whole plants and in a semi-field blossom assay. The present study confirms the potential of certain strains of L. plantarum to be used as active ingredient of microbial biopesticides for fire blight control that could be eventually extended to other plant bacterial diseases.     

Characteristic of Monilinia spp. fungi causing brown rot of pome and stone fruits in Poland

Brown rot, caused by fungi belonging to the genus Monilinia, is one of the most important diseases of stone and pome trees in the world. During the summers of 2010 and 2011, a total of 670 Monilinia spp. isolates were obtained from infected fruits. They were collected from different commercial stone and pome fruit orchards, located in northern, southern and central Poland. All isolates were identified using multiplex PCR. Twenty isolates obtained from plum, peach and apple fruits were identified as M. polystroma and 5 isolates from plums as M. fructicola. The remaining isolates were identified as M. fructigena or M. laxa. The identification of the isolates was also confirmed on the basis of growth characteristics in culture according to the EPPO standard PM 7/18. A comparison of morphological features of four Monilinia spp. growing on two selective growth media, APDA-F500 and CHA, indicated significant differences between these species. In artificial inoculation of fruits, all the examined Monilinia spp. isolates were pathogenic. The species affiliation of M. polystroma and M. fructicola isolates collected from orchards in Poland was confirmed on the base of phylogenetic and sequence analysis of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS1/5.8S rDNA/ITS2) region of ribosomal DNA.     

A revision of Billing's potential doublings table for fire blight prediction

In her fire blight prediction systems, E. Billing (1978, in: P.R. Scott & A. Bainbridge (Eds), Plant disease epidemiology, p. 159–166) has used the parameter potential doublings per day (PD) of the fire blight causing bacterium,Erwinia amylovora. Reconsideration of her calculations of PD revealed, however, that the PD values in Billing's table were underestimated. This leads to overestimation of the duration of incubation periods. A corrected PD table is presented. Sensitivity analyses indicated that day-of-the-year and latitude have little effect on the values in the PD table.Samenvatting Billing maakte in haar systemen waarin de ontwikkeling van bacterievuur wordt voor-speld, gebruik van de parameter potentiële verdubbelingen per dag (=PD) van de bacterievuur veroorzakende bacterieErwinia amylovora. Uit herberekeningen blijkt echter, dat de PD-waarden in Billings tabel onderschat worden. PD-onderschattingen leiden in haar systemen tot overschattingen van de duur van incubatieperioden. Een gecorrigeerde PD-tabel werd samengesteld. Uit gevoeligheidsanalyses bleek dat de dag van het jaar en de breedtegraad een gering effect hebben op de waarden in de PD-tabel.     

四种替代药剂对梨火疫病菌的抑制活性及其田间防效

为筛选农用链霉素替代药剂,以其为对照药剂,测定春雷霉素、中生菌素、噻霉酮和噻菌铜这4种常用细菌病害防治药剂对梨火疫病菌Erwinia amylovora的抑制活性、对梨火疫病的田间防效及不同药剂处理后梨中的农药残留,并对这4种药剂的作物安全性进行评价。结果表明,中生菌素、噻霉酮和春雷霉素对梨火疫病菌有抑制作用,抑制中浓度EC50分别为1.60、6.64和60.57 mg/L,中生菌素的抑制效果高于链霉素。在连续2年田间试验中,中生菌素1 000倍液和春雷霉素400倍液对梨火疫病的保护效果和治疗效果均达90.33%以上,噻霉酮500倍液和噻菌铜200倍液对梨火疫病的保护效果均达100.00%,治疗效果均超过86.97%,与对照药剂农用链霉素2 000倍液的效果相当。所有药剂处理后均未检出中生菌素、春雷霉素、高效氯氰菊酯和农用链霉素的农药残留,而噻虫嗪、阿维菌素和矮壮素虽有检出,但其残留量均低于国家限量标准。花期前后、幼果期和果实膨大期施药,中生菌素、春雷霉素、噻霉酮和噻菌铜对梨花、叶片、枝梢及果实生长均无不良影响。综合来看,中生菌素、春雷霉素、噻霉酮和噻菌铜均可作为农用链霉素的替代药剂,...     

Biological control of fire blight of hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) with Erwinia herbicola under protected conditions

Isolates of Erwinia herbicola , obtained from flowers and leaves of hawthorn ( Crataegus monogyna) , were screened as potential control agents of fire blight disease (caused by Erwinia amylovora) using an immature pear fruit assay. Selected isolates were subsequently tested for disease control by infection of hawthorn blossom in the laboratory, and by shoot infection of hawthorn plants grown under controlled (glasshouse) and fluctuating (polythene tunnel) environmental conditions.
Although the immature pear fruit assay provided a general screen for the selection of antagonists for the control of both blossom and shoot blight, it had two major limitations when quantitatively applied. Firstly there were inconsistencies in the relative effects of different isolates on the pear-slice surface, with some isolates being more suppressive than the standard antagonist Eh252 in the first screening and less in the second. Secondly the assay was not able to predict accurately the level of control in the intact plant-as no correlation occurred between the level of control in the pear fruit assay and the percentage control of either blossom blight or shoot blight.
Two isolates of E. herbicola , WL9 and WL40, reduced both blossom- and shoot-blight. WL9 provided over 80% control of blossom blight, equivalent to that provided by chemical agents, and also gave total control of shoot blight when applied at a WL9: pathogen ratio of 10:1.