Polygalacturonase inhibiting proteins (PGIPs) are major defensive proteins produced by plant cell walls that play a crucial role in pathogen resistance by reducing polygalacturonase (PG) activity. In the present study, a novel PGIP gene was isolated from tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum), hereafter referred as NtPGIP. A full-length NtPGIP cDNA of 1,412 bp with a 186 bp 5'-untranslated region (UTR), a...

The potential for using plant pathogens and seeds as indicator organisms for assessing sanitization of plant wastes during composting was tested in bench-scale flask and large-scale systems. Plasmodiophora brassicae was unsuitable due to high temperature tolerance in dry to moist composts, and detection of viable inoculum post-composting using bioassay plants not corresponding with that using T...

Lipoxygenase (LOX) activity has been identified consistently during pathogen-induced defense responses. Here we report the involvement of a specific leaf LOX gene of potato (Solanum tuberosum), designated POTLX-3 (GenBank/EMBL accession no. U60202), in defense responses against pathogens. The sequence of POTLX-3 does not match any other LOX genes of potato and has the greatest match to a tobacc...

Trunk injection with penicillin has been tested to control citrus huanglongbing (HLB), but side effects and environmental safety must be assured before approval of penicillin injection can be considered. We investigated effects of penicillin injection on densities of Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (Las) in leaves, as well as culturable bacterial populations in rhizospheres and petioles of gr...

The effects of differing cytokinin and auxin concentrations on resistance of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) tissue cultures to race 0 of Phytophthora parasitica var. nicotianae were examined. With 1 micromolar kinetin and either 11.5 micromolar indoleacetic acid or 1 micromolar 2,4-dichlorophen-oxyacetic acid, tissues from resistant cultivars exhibited a "hypersensitive" reaction to zoospores o...

We have investigated nuclear changes induced in tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) plant roots by two different pathogens, a phytoplasma of the stolbur group and the soil-borne fungus Phytophthora nicotianae var. parasitica, using light and electron microscopy as well as flow cytometry. Our results show that both pathogens strongly influenced nuclear structure, causing pyknosis and chromatolysis,...