Search

Using integrated pest management without relying on chemical pesticides is one of the most attractive approaches to controlling plant pathogens. Among them, using resistant cultivars or rootstocks against diseases in combination with beneficial microorganisms has attracted special attention. The citrus nematode is one of the major constraints of citrus cultivation worldwide. We showed that the mycorrhizal arbuscular fungus, Funneliformis mosseae, increased growth parameters including shoot and root length and biomass of two main rootstocks of citrus, sour orange and Volkamer lemon, in noninfected and infected plants with citrus nematode. It decreased the infection rate by citrus nematode in both rootstocks compared with nonmycorrhizal plants. The rate of decrease in nematode infection was highest when plants were pre-inoculated with F. mosseae and was lowest when nematode was inoculated before F. mosseae. However, when nematode was inoculated before the fungus, the fungus was still able to mitigate the negative effect of infection by nematode compared with plants inoculated with nematode only. This suggests that the timing of inoculation plays a crucial role in the effectiveness of F. mosseae in reducing nematode infection. Moreover, monitoring of the expression of two genes, phenylalanine ammonia-lyase and β-1,3-glucanase, which are involved in systemic-acquired resistance (SAR) showed that although they were significantly upregulated in mycorrhizal plants compared with nonmycorrhizal plants, they showed the highest expression when plants were pretreated with fungus before nematode inoculation, thus, indicating that plants were primed. In summary, F. mosseae primes the defense-related genes involved in SAR, increasing plant defensive capacity and boosting growth parameters in citrus rootstock. This has important implications for the agricultural industry., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permission@oup.com.)

Auricularia cornea Ehrenb (syn. A. polytricha) is a wood-decaying fungi known as black ear mushroom. Earlike gelatinous fruiting body distinguishes them from other fungi. Industrial wastes have the potential to be used as the basic substrate to produce mushrooms. Therefore, 16 substrate formulations were prepared from different ratios of beech (BS) and hornbeam sawdust (HS) supplemented with wheat (WB) and rice brans (RB). The pH and initial moisture content of substrate mixtures were adjusted to 6.5 and 70%, respectively. The comparison of in vitro growth characteristics of the fungal mycelia under the different temperatures (25, 28, and 30°C), and culture media [yeast extract agar (YEA), potato extract agar (PEA), malt extract agar (MEA), and also HS and BS extract agar media supplemented with maltose, dextrose, and fructose revealed that the highest mycelial growth rate (MGR; 7.5 mm/day) belonged to HS and BS extract agar media supplemented with three mentioned sugar at 28°C. In A. cornea spawn study, the substrate combination of BS (70%) + WB (30%) at 28°C and moisture contents of 75% displayed the highest mean MGR (9.3 mm/day) and lowest spawn run period (9.0 days). In the bag test, "BS (70%) + WB (30%)" was the best substrate displaying the shortest spawn run period (19.7 days), and the highest fresh sporophore yield (131.7 g/bag), biological efficiency (53.1%) and number of basidiocarp (9.0/bag) of A. cornea. Also, A. cornea cultivation was processed to model yield, biological efficiency (BE), spawn run period (SRP), days for pinhead formation (DPHF), days for the first harvest (DFFH), and total cultivation period (TCP) by multilayer perceptron-genetic algorithm (MLP-GA). MLP-GA (0.81-0.99) exhibited a higher predictive ability than stepwise regression (0.06-0.58). The forecasted values of the output variables were in good accordance with their observed ones corroborating the good competency of established MLP-GA models. MLP-GA modeling exhibited a powerful tool for forecasting and thus selecting the optimal substrate for maximum A. cornea production., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Jahedi et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

The effects of Piriformospora indica and Glomus mosseae on some growth and physiological parameters, and cadmium (Cd) amounts in Triticum aestivum cv. Sardari39 plants under the toxic levels of Cd were investigated. The experiment was carried out including four treatments (P. indica inoculation, G. mosseae inoculation, co-inoculation of G. mosseae and P. indica, and non-inoculation), each having four Cd concentrations (0, 0.3, 0.6 and 0.9 mM Cd). In non-inoculated plants, by increasing Cd concentration in the soil, growth parameters, chlorophyll content, performance index (PI) and Fv/Fm were reduced, whereas root and shoot Cd accumulation were increased. The colonized plants with P. indica and G. mosseae (in solitary or together) had higher growth, chlorophyll content and PI compared to control. In the presence of P. indica, the Cd concentration was increased in roots, whereas it was decreased in shoots under higher soil Cd concentrations. The presence of G. mosseae decreased root Cd concentration under lower Cd concentration in the soil. Results from this study indicate that P. indica inoculation yielded greater readings of growth parameters, chlorophyll content, PI, root colonization and also reduced shoot Cd content compared to G. mosseae inoculation., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) is a very important plant in the family of Apiaceae. Effects of inoculation of two endophytic fungi (Piriformospora indica and Sebacina vermifera) in growth, yield and composition of the essential oil of fennel (F. vulgare) were evaluated in pot cultures. Dry fruits were ground with an electric grinder and oil was extracted by hydrodistillation, and their composition was determined by GC/MS. In pot experiment, the maximum dry weight of the green tissue and root and plant height were obtained with P. indica, and maximum number of umbels per plant and dry weight of 1000 fruits were produced with S. vermifera. The P. indica and S. vermifera inoculation significantly increased oil yield as compared to non-inoculated control plants. GC and GC/MS studies revealed that the level of anethole was increased with P. indica and S. vermifera., (Copyright © 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

The free-living mite species Sancassania rodionovi (Zachvatkin) (Acari: Acaridae), is a serious pest of mushrooms in Iran. Studies were conducted to examine the development of this mite in relation to temperature on two mushroom species: Agaricus bisporus Lange (button mushroom) and Pleurotus ostreatus Kummer (oyster mushroom). The developmental time of this acarid mite was studied at eight constant temperatures, ranging from 5 to 40 degrees C, and developmental rates were modeled as a function of temperature. Sancassania rodionovi completed immature development in 17.35 +/- 0.58 and 20.17 +/- 0.88 d at 25 degrees C on button and oyster mushrooms, respectively. When the mite fed on button mushroom, the rate of development increased gradually from 10 to 35 degrees C. Using a linear model, the developmental zero was estimated to be 3.50 degrees C with a thermal constant of 357.14 degree-days. The Logan 10, Briere 1, and Thermodynamic models adequately described the data for this mite and yielded R2 values >0.95; these models provided estimates of optimum temperature for development of 33.244, 32.145, and 32.148 degrees C, respectively. Understanding the influence of temperature on development of S. rodionovi is discussed with respect to pest management in mushroom production.

The fungicidal effect of sethoxydim on the canola (Brassica napus var. Olifera) white stem rot pathogen (Sclerotinia sclerotiorum) encouraged us to conduct a series of studies on the mechanism of the antifungal activity of this herbicide commonly applied in Iranian fields under canola cultivation. Present preliminary studies on the changes in the level of Malondialdehyde (MDA) as the main product generated through peroxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids indicated the disintegration of the fungal bilayer of plasma membrane as the result of the herbicidal treatment. Also, it was demonstrated that the amount of hydrogen peroxide in the treated samples was higher than the control samples with no herbicidal treatment. Therefore, our present results confirm the disintegration of the plasma membrane as one of the mechanism for the antifungal impact of sethoxydim. As with weed plants, the phytotoxic impact of this herbicide has been attributed to the inhibition of the first enzyme in the lipid biosynthesis pathway, acetyl-CoA carboxylase, therefore, it would be very interesting to study on this subject and the relations between the sensitivity of different fungi and their DNA and protein sequences of acetyl-CoA carboxylase.

Optimization of industrial mushroom production depends on improving the culture process and breeding new strains with higher yields and productivities. So many works have been done on process improvement, Although few systematic studies of genetic breeding of Pleurotus ostreatus strains have been reported. The major aim of hybridization is to combine desirable characteristics from different strains and create variability in the existing germ plasm. In this study, we used a breeding approach to hybrid production from cultivated Oyster mushrooms Pleurotus ostreatus. Five strains of Pleurotus ostreatus (Jacq: Fries) Kummer were used in this research. Basidiospores were suspended in sterile distilled water and counted with a haemocytometer. After germination, colony of each isolate transferred into the PDA medium. Growth rate and colony type of each isolate was determined and then 17 monokaryons were selected. Consequently screening monokaryons were crossed to each other. Some characteristics such as morphological interaction in the contact zone of mycelium, increasing in growth rate of hybrid, change of colony morphology and the presence of clamp connections between dikaryotic cells used to distinction of monokaryons from dikaryons. We recognized 27 hybrids by these characteristics.

Five herbicides commonly used in rapeseed crop, canola (Brassica napus var Olifera) fields in Iran were studied with an eye to their antifungal activities against six isolates of Trichoderma species and also the phytopathogenic fungus Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. The doses tested were the same as are recommended for applications in canola crops. The results showed that the dinitro aniline herbicides (trifluralin and ethalfluralin) had the highest antifungal activities in vitro on the toxified CDA media; also three other herbicides behaved differently in relation to the fungi investigated. Cycloxydim had the most toxicity against Trichoderma sp. and sethoxydim had the least deleterious effects. But, with, Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, sethoxydim had the most toxicity together with cycloxydim with an intermediate level of anti-fungal activity between sethoxydim and haloxy fop ethoxy ethyl. This may be the first global report of the antifungal activities of the haloxy fop ethoxy ethyl, ethanol fluralin and cycloxydim.