Picea abies and Larix decidua were subjected to GC/MS analyses, and antimicrobial (fungi and bacteria) assays of their stem wood and bark extracts were investigated. L. decidua bark extract exhibited the highest antifungal and antibacterial activities against the microorganisms that were screened. The microbes Penecillium ochrochloron and Aspergillus ochraceus were the most sensitive to the ext...

Despite the fact that fungal diseases are a growing menace for conifers in modern silviculture, only a very limited number of molecular markers for pathogen resistance have been validated in conifer species. A previous genetic study indicated that the resistance of Norway spruce (Picea abies) to Heterobasidion annosum s.l., a pathogenic basidiomycete species complex, is linked to a quantitative...

As sessile organisms, plants have evolved different methods to defend against attacks and have adapted their defense measures to discriminate between mechanical damage and herbivory by insects. One of the ways that plant defenses are triggered is via elicitors from insect oral secretions (OS). In this study, we investigated the ability of second-instar (L2) spruce budworm [SBW; Choristoneura fu...