Occurrence and molecular characterization of strobilurin resistance in cucumber powdery mildew and downy mildew

ABSTRACT Between 1998 and 1999, control failure of powdery mildew (Podosphaera fusca) and downy mildew (Pseudoperonospora cubensis) by the strobilurin fungicides azoxystrobin and kresoxim-methyl was observed in cucumber-growing areas of Japan. Results from inoculation tests carried out on intact cucumber plants and leaf disks clearly showed the distribution of pathogen isolates highly resistant to azoxystrobin and kresoximmethyl. Fragments of the fungicide-targeted mitochondrial cytochrome b gene were polymerase chain reaction amplified from total pathogen DNA and their sequences analyzed to elucidate the molecular mechanism of resistance. A single point mutation (GGT to GCT) in the cytochrome b gene, resulting in substitution of glycine by alanine at position 143, was found in resistant isolates of downy mildew. This substitution in cytochrome b seemed to result in high resistance to strobilurins in this pathogen. The same mutation was found in some but not all resistant isolates of powdery mildew. This study suggests that a mutation at position 143 in the target-encoding gene, resulting in an amino acid substitution, was probably a major cause of the rapid development of high strobilurin resistance in these two pathogens.     

Quantitative structure-activity relationships of the fungicidal methyl N-phenylcarbamates

For 69 methyl N-phenylcarbamates having various benzene ring substituents, the fungicidal activity was determined against Botrytis cinerea resistant to benzimidazole fungicides by the agar medium dilution method. The structure-activity relationships were analyzed quantitatively using such physicochemical substituent parameters as hydrophobic π, steric B₅, and HB (hydrogen bonding) with the Hansch-Fujita method (C. Hansch and T. Fujita, J. Amer. Chem. Soc.86, 1616 1964). The hydrophobicity of substituents was favorable to the acitivity. The effect was position-specific, the importance being in the order of ortho meta > para. The activity was related parabolically to the maximum width of one of the m-substituents having the larger dimension. The hydrogen acceptability of p-substituents enhanced the activity. The preventive activity of compounds against gray mold of cucumber caused by the resistant B. cinerea, which was determined by the foliar application in pot tests, was dependent on the magnitude of the fungicidal activity and hydrophobicity of the compounds as analyzed by the adaptive least-squares method.