Bacterial wilt, caused by Ralstonia solanacearum E.F. Smith, is one of the most destructive diseases of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill) in Sri Lanka. Twenty isolates of R. solanacearum from tomato plants grown in eleven different agro climatic zones from selected districts (Kandy, Matale, Monaragala) were characterized in terms of pathogenicity on susceptible check variety Marglobe and in...

This chapter presents a summary of the results of experiments conducted in Alabama and Florida over a five year period to evaluate strains of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) for induction of resistance against insect-transmitted diseases on field-grown cucumber and tomato. Experiments with cucumber demonstrated that treatment with PGPR significantly reduced the incidence of wilt sym...

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is one of the most popular vegetable crops grown in the world, next to potato. It is used as a fresh vegetable and also can be processed and canned as a paste, juice, sauce, powder or as a whole (Barone and Frusciante, 2007). The ripe fruits are good source of vitamin A, B and C which add wide varieties of colour and flavour to the food. Recently, it started gai...

Fifty fungal isolates were sampled from diseased tomato plants as result of a survey conducted in seven tomato crop areas in Algeria from 2012 to 2015. Morphological criteria and PCR-based identification, using the primers PF02 and PF03, assigned 29 out of 50 isolates to Fusarium oxysporum (Fo). The banding patterns amplified for genes SIX1, SIX3 and SIX4 served to identify races 2 and 3 of Fo ...

Soil-based root applications and attenuated bacterial strains were evaluated as means to enhance bacteriophage persistence on plants for bacterial disease control. In addition, the systemic nature of phage applied to tomato roots was also evaluated. Several experiments were conducted applying either single phages or phage mixtures specific for Ralstonia solanacearum, Xanthomonas perforans or X....

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) suppress the transcriptional and post-transcriptional expression of genes in plants. Several miRNA families target genes encoding nucleotide-binding site-leucine-rich repeat (NB-LRR) plant innate immune receptors. The fungus Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici causes vascular wilt disease in tomato. We explored a role for miRNAs in tomato defense against F. oxysporum using ...

Biocontrol of plant diseases through induction of systemic resistance is an environmental friendly substitute to chemicals in crop protection measures. Different biotic and abiotic elicitors can trigger the plant for induced resistance. Present study was designed to explore the potential of Pseudomonas aeruginosa PM12 in inducing systemic resistance in tomato against Fusarium wilt. Initially th...

Ralstonia solanacearum, a widely distributed and economically important plant pathogen, invades the roots of diverse plant hosts from the soil and aggressively colonizes the xylem vessels, causing a lethal wilting known as bacterial wilt disease. By examining bacteria from the xylem vessels of infected plants, we found that R. solanacearum is essentially nonmotile in planta, although it can be ...