The oomycete, Phytophthora infestans, is one of the most important plant pathogens worldwide. This thesis focuses on the late blight pathogen and its host, potato (Solanum tuberosum), and the interaction between these two organisms. Resistance to P. infestans was evaluated histologically, using leaves of potato cultivars with varying levels of general resistance. Preinfectional events could be ...

Sander Y.A. Rodenburg, Michael F. Seidl, Dick de Ridder*, Francine Govers* 3 4 1 Laboratory of Phytopathology, Wageningen University, Droevendaalsesteeg 1, 6708 PB 5 Wageningen, The Netherlands 6 2 Bioinformatics Group, Wageningen University, Droevendaalsesteeg 1, 6708 PB 7 Wageningen, The Netherlands 8 9 * Equal contribution 10 Correspondence: 11 Francine Govers, Laboratory of Phytopathology, ...

BACKGROUND Late blight, caused by Phytophthora infestans, is one of the most devastating diseases found in potato and tomato crops worldwide. In Colombia it also attacks other important crops: cape gooseberry and tree tomato. The knowledge of the pathogen population is determinant to effectively design control strategies. AIMS To determine the physiological and molecular characteristics of a ...

Triatoma infestans is the triatomine that presents the greatest dispersion area in South America. However, it is not known whether the original characteristics of this insect remained in its long dispersion process. The purpose of this work was to study comparatively the external male genitalia of insects from different populations of T. infestans, two from Brazil (Minas Gerais and Bahia) and o...

Pseudomonas koreensis, a new nominated Gram-negative bacterium was first reported and isolated from Korean agricultural soil (Kwon et al., 2003). CRS05-R5 (first reported as Pseudomonas sp.), which showed biocontrol ability against Sitophilus oryzae andAcidovorax avenae subsp. avenae (Liu et al., 2014), was first isolated from the rice rhizosphere in Heilongjiang province and reported in 2003 (...

Current models of plant-pathogen interactions stipulate that pathogens secrete effector proteins that disable plant defense components known as virulence targets. Occasionally, the perturbations caused by these effectors trigger innate immunity via plant disease resistance proteins as described by the "guard hypothesis." This model is nicely illustrated by the interaction between the fungal pla...

Wild tomatoes are a valuable source of disease resistance germplasm for tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) breeders. Many species are known to possess a certain degree of resistance against certain pathogens; however, evolution of resistance traits is yet poorly understood. For some species, like Solanum chilense, both differences in habitat and within species genetic diversity are very large. Here ...

Primary and secondary data show the importance and distribution of human Chagas disease (HCD) in Northeast Brazil. Among the 27 detected vector species, Triatoma infestans, Panstrongylus megistus, Triatoma brasiliensis and Triatoma pseudomaculata are epidemiologically important. Major medical impact is attributed to T. infestans and P. megistus, the most domiciliated and vulnerable species, whi...

The pattern of locomotion activity was studied in Triatoma infestans, in relation to the use of an artificial refuge offered to the bugs in an experimental arena. In assays performed with insects that had a post-ecdysis starvation period of 1 week, the activity was low and mainly related to refuge leaving or entering. Insects that had gone through a longer period of starvation (6 weeks) exhibit...

We used genus/species specific PCRs to determine the temporal persistence of host DNA in Triatoma infestans experimentally fed on blood from six common vertebrate species: humans, domestic dogs, guinea pigs, chickens, mice, and pigs. Twenty third or fourth instar nymphs per animal group were allowed to feed to engorgement, followed by fasting-maintenance in the insectary. At 7, 14, 21, or 28 da...