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In this study, the impact of cerium oxide nanoparticles on the nutritional value of tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum ) fruit grown in soil infested with Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici was investigated in a greenhouse pot study. Three-week old seedlings of Bonny Best tomato plants were exposed by foliar and soil routes to nanoparticle CeO 2 (NP CeO 2 ) and cerium acetate (CeAc) at 0, 50, and 250 mg/L and transplanted into pots containing a soil mixture infested with the Fusarium wilt pathogen. Fruit biomass, water content, diameter, and nutritional content (lycopene, reducing and total sugar) along with elemental composition, including Ce, were evaluated. Fruit Ce concentration was below the detection limit in all treatments. Foliar exposure to NP CeO 2 at 250 increased the fruit dry weight (67%) and lycopene content (9%) in infested plants, compared with the infested untreated control. Foliar exposure to CeAc at 50 mg/L reduced fruit fresh weight (46%) and water content (46%) and increased the fruit lycopene content by 11% via root exposure as compared with the untreated infested control. At 250 mg/L, CeAc increased fruit dry weight (94%), compared with the infested untreated control. Total sugar content decreased in fruits of infested plants exposed via roots to NP CeO 2 at 50 mg/kg (63%) and 250 mg/kg (54%), CeAc at 50 mg/kg (46%), and foliarly at 50 mg/L (50%) and 250 mg/L (50%), all compared with the infested untreated control. Plants grown in Fusarium -infested soil had decreased fruit dry weight (42%) and lycopene content (17%) and increased total sugar (60%) and Ca content (140%), when compared with the noninfested untreated control ( p ≤ 0.05). Overall, the data suggested minimal negative effects of NP CeO 2 on the nutritional value of tomato fruit while simultaneously suppressing Fusarium wilt disease.

Soybeans ( Glycine max ) (V3 stage) were sprayed once with nanoparticles (NPs) of AgO, B, CeO, CuO, MnO, MoO 3 , SiO, TiO, or ZnO and exposed to Fusarium virguliforme , the cause of sudden death syndrome. Up to 80% root rot was observed in greenhouse experiments. However, NP CuO, B, MoO 3 , or ZnO reduced the root rot severity by 17-25%. Infected roots and shoots had significant changes in B, Mg, P, S, Si, and Zn, but NP treatment restored levels to that of the healthy control. For example, the increased root Mg and Mn contents induced by disease were reversed by NP B and Mn amendments. In vitro assays found that the NPs did not inhibit the pathogen. This, along with the restoration of altered nutrient levels in the plant tissue, suggests that modulated plant nutrition increased disease defense. Treatment of seedlings with nanoscale micronutrients may be a new tool in promoting soybean health.

The use of nanoparticles in plant protection may reduce pesticide usage and contamination and increase food security. In this study, three-week-old Solanum lycopersicum seedlings were exposed, by root or foliar pathways, to CeO 2 nanoparticles and cerium acetate at 50 and 250 mg/L prior to transplant into sterilized soil. One week later, the soil was inoculated with the fungal pathogen Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici (1 g/kg), and the plants were cultivated to maturity in a greenhouse. Disease severity, biomass/yield, and biochemical and physiological parameters were analyzed in harvested plants. Disease severity was significantly reduced by 250 mg/L of nano-CeO 2 and CeAc applied to the soil (53% and 35%, respectively) or foliage (57% and 41%, respectively), compared with non-treated infested controls. Overall, the findings show that nano-CeO 2 has potential to suppress Fusarium wilt and improve the chlorophyll content in tomato plants.

Tripartite interactions are common and occur when one agent (an arthropod or pathogen) changes the host plant in a manner that alters the attack of the challenging agent. We examined herbivory from the purple marsh crab (Sesarma reticulatum) on Spartina alterniflora following exposure to drought or inoculation with Fusarium palustre in mecocosms in the greenhouse and in crab-infested creek banks along intertidal salt marshes. Initially, drought stress on S. alterniflora and disease from F. palustre were examined in the greenhouse. Then, a second challenger, the purple marsh crab, was introduced to determine how drought and disease from F. palustre affected the attraction and consumption of S. alterniflora. Plant height and shoot and root weights were reduced in plants subjected to severe drought treatment when compared with normally irrigated plants. When the drought treatment was combined with inoculation with F. palustre, plants were significantly more stunted and symptomatic, had less fresh weight, more diseased roots, and a greater number of Fusarium colonies growing from the roots (P < 0.001) than noninoculated plants. The effects were additive, and statistical interactions were not detected between drought and inoculation. Estimates of herbivory (number of grass blades cut or biomass consumption) by the purple marsh crab were significantly greater on drought-stressed, diseased plants than on healthy plants irrigated normally. Drought increased attraction to the purple marsh crab more than inoculation with F. palustre. However, when only mild drought conditions were imposed, plant consumption was greater on inoculated plants. Healthy, nonstressed transplants set into plots in crabinfested intertidal creek banks were grazed less each year than inoculated plants or plants that were exposed to drought. Several hypotheses relating to nutrition, chemotaxis, and visual attraction are presented to explain how stress from drought or disease might favor herbivory.

Sudden vegetation dieback (SVD) is the loss of smooth cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora) along intertidal creeks in salt marshes of the Atlantic and Gulf states. The underlying cause of SVD remains unclear, but earlier work suggested a contributing role for Fusarium spp. in Louisiana. This report investigated whether these or other Fusarium species were associated with S. alterniflora dieback in mid- to north-Atlantic states. Isolations from seven SVD sites yielded 192 isolates of Fusarium spp., with more than 75% isolated from aboveground tissue. Most isolates (88%) fell into two undescribed morphospecies (MS) distinguished from each other by macroconidial shape, phialide ontogeny and growth rates. Pathogenicity tests on wound-inoculated S. alterniflora stems and seedling roots revealed that isolates in MS1 were more virulent than those in MS2 but no single isolate caused plant mortality. No matches to known species of Fusarium were revealed by DNA sequence queries of translation elongation factor 1-α (tef1) sequences. A phylogenetic analysis of partial sequences of three genes, β-tubulin (β-tub), calmodulin (cal) and tef1, was conducted on representative isolates from MS1 (n = 20) and MS2 (n = 18); it provided strong evidence that the MS1 isolates form a clade that represents a heretofore undescribed species, which we designate Fusarium palustre sp. nov. Isolates from the more variable MS2 clustered with the F. incarnatum-equiseti species complex as F. cf. incarnatum. Although a strong association exists between both species and declining S. alterniflora in SVD sites, neither appears to play a primary causal role in SVD. However, our findings suggest that F. palustre might play an important secondary role in the ecological disruption of the salt marshes.