The occurrence of Rhizoctonia solani on subterranean parts of wild plants in potato fields

The subterranean parts of 1585 wild plants (weeds) belonging to 52 species, found in potato fields in the northern part of the Netherlands were examined for the presence ofRhizoctonia solani. The fungus could be isolated from 30 plants belonging to 12 species. Of these isolates 62% proved to be pathogenic to potato sprouts.Some species seemed more frequently colonized byR. solani than others, particularlySolanum nigrum, Elytrichia repens andMatricaria recutita. On some common weeds, viz.Chenopodium album andPoa annua, noR. solani was observed, while about 1% of allPolygonum persicaria were infected.Disease symptoms were only observed once onElytrichia repens as sharp eyespots, presumably caused byR. cerealis.The incidence ofR. Solani on weeds increased markedly towards the end of the growing season.

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Samenvatting Wortels, wortelstokken en ondergrondse stengeldelen van onkruiden voorkomend in aardappelakkers in Groningen, Friesland en Drenthe zijn onderzocht op de aanwezigheid vanRhizoctonia solani. Van 1585 planten, behorend tot 52 soorten, herbergde bijna 2%, d.w.z. 29 planten behorend tot 12 soorten,R. solani op de ondergrondse delen. Van dezeRhizoctonia-isolaten bleek 62% aardappelspruiten aan te tasten.Bepaalde onkruidsoorten bleken vaker drager te zijn vanR. solani dan andere. Dit was het geval met kweek, zwarte nachtschade en echte kamille. Op enkele algemene onkruiden als witte ganzevoet en straatgras is geenRhizoctonia waargenomen. Van het algemeen op zandgronden voorkomende perzikkruid bleek ongeveer 1%Rhizoctonia op de wortels te herbergen.Typische ziektesymptomen — scherpe oogvlekken — zijn alleen waargenomen op stengels van kweek. Het voorkomen vanR. solani op onkruiden neemt sterk toe tegen het eind van het groeiseizoen (eind augustus en september).

     

Coat protein-mediated protection to cucumber mosaic virus infections in cultivated tomato

Summary Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) infections rank among the most devastating diseases in the commercial culture of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.), for which suitable sources of natural resistance are not available. The concept of pathogen-derived resistance, however, offers an alternate approach to combat plant viral diseases by transformation of crops with nucleotide sequences derived from the viral genome. This report demonstrates the successful application of such a pathogen-derived resistance gene comprising the CMV coat protein (CP) gene, to generate protection to CMV infections in cultivated tomato. Transformation of an inbred tomato line with the CMV CP gene isolated from a subgroup I strain, engendered high levels of protection to various CMV strains, including a virulent strain causing lethal necrosis and a typical subgroup II strain. Moreover, when challenged by natural infection through aphid vectors in open field, levels of protection were largely maintained in hemizygous hybrids. In all, these results demonstrate that synthetic resistance genes based on the CMV CP gene make excellent sources of broad spectrum resistance to CMV infections for introgression into tomato breeding programs.