In this review article, we show that occurrence of fungicide resistance is one of the most important issues in modern agriculture. Fungicide resistance may be due to mutations of genes encoding fungicide targets (qualitative fungicide resistance) or to different mechanisms that are induced by sub-lethal fungicide stress. These mechanisms result in different and varying levels of resistance (qua...

We previously found that carbamate pesticides induced significant apoptosis in human natural killer cells. To investigate whether carbamate pesticides also induce apoptosis in human T lymphocytes, in the present study Jurkat human T cells were treated in vitro with thiram, maneb, carbaryl or ziram. Apoptosis was determined by FITC-Annexin-V/PI staining. To explore the mechanism of apoptosis, in...

The effects of different types of pesticides on the in vivo striatal dopamine release were investigated by using in vivo brain microdialysis technique. MPTP, paraquat, maneb, dicofol, DDT, lindane and flutriafol (1 mM) were administered directly into the striatum, and levels of dopamine and its metabolites dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC) and homovallinic acid (HVA) were measured using HPLC-E...

The comprehensive identification and mechanistic analysis of reproductive toxicants constitutes one of the major hurdles in the toxicological assessment of chemicals originating from the large number of chemicals to be tested and the difficulty in examining germ cells at various stages of their development. We previously described the development of an assay in the roundworm Caenorhabditis eleg...

Evidence from animal and cell models suggests that pesticides cause a neurodegenerative process leading to Parkinson's disease (PD). Human data are insufficient to support this claim for any specific pesticide, largely because of challenges in exposure assessment. The authors developed and validated an exposure assessment tool based on geographic information systems that integrated information ...

Fungicide resistance in dollar spot caused by Sclerotinia homoeocarpa is a common problem on golf courses in North America (Figure 1) (2), and managing fungicide resistance is a complex and controversial topic (1,4). With dollar spot, the question of whether to use the same fungicide until resistance develops or to rotate different chemistries and tank mixtures has not been defi nitively answer...

The identification of fungicide residues on crop foliage is necessary to make periodic pest management decisions. The determination of fungicide residue identities currently is difficult and time consuming using conventional chemical analysis methods such as gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy. Different fungicide types produce unique electronic aroma signature patterns when headspace volatile...

The State of Rio Grande do Sul (RS) is the largest producer of oat in Brazil with the aid of consolidated breeding programs, which are constantly releasing new cultivars. The main objectives of this study were to: 1) evaluate the annual genetic progress in grain yield and hectoliter weight of the oat cultivars in RS, with and without fungicide use on aerial parts of plants; and 2) evaluate the ...

In 1997 we published an article in EHP on cytogenetic and thyroid hormonal changes in 49 heavily exposed workers applying ethylene bisdithiocarbamate (EBDC) fungicide to tomatoes, based on a collaborative study done by the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the Institute of Public Health in Mexico (Steenland et al. 1997). EBDCs are a common class of fungicides (e.g.,...

It has been hypothesized that developmental insults could contribute to Parkinson disease (PD), a neurodegenerative disorder resulting from the loss of the dopamine neurons of the nigrostriatal pathway. Two models of developmental pesticide exposures in mice are presented here that yield PD phenotypes consistent with this possibility. Combined exposures to the herbicide paraquat (PQ) and the fu...