About Book

Control of plant diseases is crucial to the reliable production of food, and it provides significant problems in agricultural use of land, water, fuel and other inputs. Plant pathology is defined as the study of the organisms and environmental conditions that cause disease in plants, the mechanisms by which this occurs, the interactions between these causal agents and the plant, and the methods of managing or controlling plant disease. It includes topics like pathogen identification, plant disease epidemiology, disease epidemiology, disease etiology, etc. The pathogens responsible for these diseases are bacteria, virus, protozoa, parasitic plants, etc. Continuing advances in the science of plant pathology are needed to improve disease control, and to keep up with changes in disease pressure caused by the ongoing evolution and movement of plant pathogens and by changes in agricultural practices. This book deals with the vast topic to plant pathology, also known as phytopatholpogy. It provides extensive coverage ofmolecular characterization,plant pathogen, molecular tools, pathogenic fungi, sorghum pathogens, microbial peptides, plant genotypes and hormesis.This book is a valuable compilation of various topics, ranging from the most basic to the most complex ones. For those who have an interest in plant pathology, this book will prove to be a valuable source of knowledge.

Preface............................................................................................................v

Chapter 1 Hormesis: Biphasic Dose-Responses to Fungicides in Plant Pathogens and Their Potential Threat to Agriculture.......................1

1. Introduction ..........................................................................................1

2. Historic background ............................................................................2

3. Hormesis as a general phenomenon ...............................................5

4. Evidence of chemical hormesis in phytopathological literature.7

5. Fungicides hormesis and its impact on fungal plant

pathogens ..............................................................................................8

6. The biological basis of hormesis ....................................................10

7. Studying hormesis..............................................................................11

8. Why is chemical hormesis relevant for crop management? .....14

Chapter 2 The Use of Interactions in Dual Cultures in vitro to Evaluate the Pathogenicity of Fungi and Susceptibility of Host Plant Genotypes...................................................................................................25

1. Introduction..........................................................................................25

2. Materials and methods .....................................................................27

3. The possibilities of using dual cultures ........................................32

4. Protein as a symptom of fungal virulence ...................................35

5. Phenolic compounds involved in defense reactions....................37

6. Callus tissue necrosis as the effect of hypersensitive response to

stress factors.........................................................................................37

7. Conclusions .........................................................................................38

Acknowledgements ...........................................................................39

Chapter 3 Novel Anti-Microbial Peptides of Xenorhabdus Origin Against

Multidrug Resistant Plant Pathogens..................................................43

1. Introduction..........................................................................................43

2. Aim, objective and rationale ...........................................................46

3. Materials and methods .....................................................................60

4. Results and discussion .....................................................................74

5. Conclusions and perspectives .........................................................89

6. Acknowledgement .............................................................................94

Chapter 4 An Alternative Approaches for the Control of Sorghum Pathogens

Using Selected Medicinal Plants Extracts .......................................104

1. Introduction ......................................................................................104

2. Materials and methods ...................................................................105

3. Results ................................................................................................112

4. Discussion .........................................................................................118

Chapter 5 Horizontal or Generalized Resistance to Pathogens in Plants....123

1. Introduction........................................................................................123

2. Vertical or specific resistance..........................................................130

3. Horizontal or non-specific resistance............................................136

4. Examples of disease management with horizontal resistance.143

5. Resistance to stem rust and stripe rust in wheat.......................151

6. Resistance of plants to insects........................................................158

7. The contribution of molecular biology.........................................160

8. Conclusion..........................................................................................161

Chapter 6 Novel Methods for the Quantification of Pathogenic Fungi in

Crop Plants: Quantitative PCR and ELISA Accurately Determine

Fusarium Biomass...................................................................................172

1. Introduction........................................................................................172

2. Toxigenicity and impacts.................................................................173

3. Plant resistance to Fusarium............................................................174

4. Methods for the identification of Fusarium and quantification of

the infection........................................................................................176

5. Conclusions........................................................................................185

6. Acknowledgements...........................................................................186

Chapter 7 Molecular Tools for Detection of Plant Pathogenic Fungi and

Fungicide Resistance..............................................................................194

1. Introduction........................................................................................194

2. Molecular methods for detection of plant pathogenic fungi...195

3. Fungicide resistance..........................................................................224

4. Conclusion..........................................................................................230

5. Acknowledgements...........................................................................231

Chapter 8 Molecular Characterization of Carbendazim Resistance of Plant

Pathogen (Bipolaris oryzae)..................................................................265

1. Introduction........................................................................................265

2. Materials and methods....................................................................267

3. Results.................................................................................................277

4. Discussion...........................................................................................287

5. Summary.............................................................................................289

6. Acknowledgment..............................................................................290

Citation......................................................................................................293

Index...........................................................................................................295

About Author

Randall David obtained his Ph.D. in Plant Pathology from Science Research University, Alberta. He specializes in plant science and pathology and has worked as a plant physiology researcher in many technological firms. He has served as a Visiting Professor at various universities across Europe and America. He has written dozens of articles and journals related to plant physiology, plant taxonomy, and weed science. He has held seminars and attended international conferences on horticultural science, plant breeding and plants in vitro culture.