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Postharvest fungal rots are a continuous threat to perishable fruits worldwide. Fungal contamination is a significant factor affecting quality of peaches and resulting decline in their quantity. Postharvest health of peaches is of major concern for producers, consumers, marketers, and food industries globally. Early specie level detection of these deteriorating fungal rots is extremely important to adopt timely preventive measures and enhance shelf-life of peaches. In present study five fungal phytopathogenic rots were detected from peaches and identified based on molecular characterization using ITS universal fungal primers, EF-1a and ß-tubulin (benA). Multi-locus characterization revealed fungal rots viz; Fusarium sporotrichioides, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus, Penicillium chrysogenum and Cladosporium pseudocladosporioides respectively. Phylogenetic tree was constructed in MEGAX software using Neighbour-Joining Method and 1000 bootstrap replicates were selected to represent the evolutionary history of the taxa analyzed. Prior to management of various fungal rots, their accurate diagnosis is compulsory. Our results are significant in developing opportune control strategies from the field to storage hence reducing qualitative and quantitative losses and to enhance shelf-life of peaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Okra yellow vein mosaic virus (OYVMV) is vectored by sucking insect whitefly into the phloem of the okra plant. It devastates the fruit quality and production if infection started at early growth stages. Commonly, the virus is tried to manage by using chemical insecticides against the whitefly that has adverse effects on the ecosystem. The present study was to explore the non-chemical ways to fight against OYVMV and it vector. The available germplasm consisting of 11 cultivars was sown in augmented design to estimate the level of resistance under natural conditions where no whitefly control measure was used. Based upon the results of disease severity, the cultivars were categorized into highly resistant, resistant, moderately resistant, moderately susceptible, susceptible and highly susceptible; the most effective and highly resistant variety was "Sabz Pari" that showed minimum disease incidence (60.58%) and disease severity (7.72%). A separate experiment was conducted to evaluate the role of plant extracts in the management of OYVMV disease and whitefly where 5 moderately resistant to moderately susceptible varieties were sown. Among the plant extracts applied garlic extract showed more significant results in controlling whitefly (79.23%) and OYVMV transmission (88.27%). It could be concluded that "Sabz Pari" is the most suitable and high yielding okra variety against OYVMV disease and garlic extract could be applied as a best bio-pesticide against sucking insects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L.) belongs to family Malvaceae and it is a rich source of carbohydrates, minerals and vitamins. Okra yellow vein mosaic disease (OYVMD) is a devastating biotic stress that is caused by okra yellow vein mosaic virus (OYVMV). This virus is vectored by whitefly (Bemisia tabaci) in a persistent and circulative manner. The current study aims to evaluate the effect of OYVMV on biochemistry of okra plants. An extensive survey about the epidemiology of OYVMD in geographical location of Tehsil Sahiwal, District Sargodha (Punjab Province-Pakistan) on okra fields was conducted. Symptomatic samples subjected to OYVMV confirmation were collected. The healthy and infected samples were processed for determination of biochemical parameters such as total phenolic contents (TPC), total soluble sugars (TSS), and enzymatic antioxidants i.e. superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD) and catalase (CAT) to assess the effect of virus infection on okra plants. TPC were measured by using Folin-Ciocalteu reagent (FCR); TSS determined through anthrone sulfuric acid assay and enzymatic antioxidants by using nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT) solution. The quantity of TPC was decreased while TSS and enzymatic antioxidants increased in diseased plants. TPC in healthy bark and leaves was 0.12 and 0.14 mg/g as compared to 0.2 mg/g of diseased samples. TSS in diseased bark and leaves was 223 and 214 mg/g while enzymatic antioxidants SOD, POD and CAT were also higher. The present study would be helpful in developing environment friendly management approaches by using biochemical profiling of infected plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Potato Virus Y has become the most important virus of Potato crop. Various strains of Potato Virus Y has emerged which are affecting the yield of crop and causing economic losses. Due to a conducive climatic conditions for aphid vector the only viable method for control of PVy is identification and cultivation of resistant varieties. Three year's trial was conducted to identify advance lines and varieties showing resistance towards prevalent strains of Potato Virus Y. PVYO, PVYLD and PVYVN were found most virulent and destructive. No line was found resistant, 3 lines showed moderately resistant response, 5 lines were moderately susceptible, 12 lines was susceptible whiles 2 lines shown highly susceptible response. Incidence and Severity of plants were calculated in field trials and climate data including the averages of maximum temperature, minimum temperature, relative humidity and precipitation was compared with disease development in field trials. Increase in maximum temperature had strong positive correlation with disease severity, while relative humidity and precipitation were negatively correlated with disease development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]