Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology最新文献

{"title":"Molecular crosstalk between plant defense hormones and reactive oxygen species during fungal infection: Insights into integrated resistance mechanisms","authors":"Mohamed M. El-Mogy ,&nbsp;Amira A. Ibrahim ,&nbsp;Sameh A. Hussein ,&nbsp;Hossam S. El-Beltagi ,&nbsp;Ahmed M. Ismail ,&nbsp;Mohamed Abdel-Haleem","doi":"10.1016/j.pmpp.2025.103077","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pmpp.2025.103077","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Plant defense mechanisms against fungal infections involve a complex interaction between phytohormones and reactive oxygen species (ROS). Upon encountering infection, a plant activates multiple hormonals signaling pathways, particularly those associated with salicylic acid (SA), jasmonic acid (JA), and ethylene (ET). The hormones collaborate to regulate the production and removal of reactive oxygen species, thereby maintaining a critical equilibrium between localized hypersensitive responses and systemic acquired resistance. Recent advancements in transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics have improved our understanding of the role of redox signaling in hormone production, receptor activation, and subsequent gene expression. The regulatory role of hormones in ROS production, mediated by NADPH oxidases and antioxidant enzymes, establishes a feedback loop that connects the plant's stress perception to its defense mechanisms. This study synthesizes the physiological and molecular mechanisms involved in these interactions, highlighting essential regulatory nodes, transcription factors, and signaling networks that are crucial for coordinating plant resistance to fungal infections. Enhancing our comprehension of this signaling system allows for the exploration of novel strategies to develop crops with increased resistance via targeted modifications of hormone–ROS interactions. These advancements have significant potential to improve agricultural resilience and sustainability.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20046,"journal":{"name":"Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology","volume":"142 ","pages":"Article 103077"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145796874","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Bioactivity and mechanisms of Ewingella americana for the control of Alternaria leaf spot on peanut","authors":"Xuan Wang ,&nbsp;Yi-Zhou Chen ,&nbsp;Xiao-Di Qiu ,&nbsp;Lei Chen ,&nbsp;Yong-Mei Teng ,&nbsp;Cheng Ding ,&nbsp;Yan-Ting Huang ,&nbsp;Su-Yan Wang ,&nbsp;Si-Yuan Liu ,&nbsp;Bin Ding ,&nbsp;Pedro Laborda ,&nbsp;Su-Qin Zhu","doi":"10.1016/j.pmpp.2025.103088","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pmpp.2025.103088","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Bacterial biocontrol agents are emerging as a suitable alternative for the management of fungal diseases, avoiding the use of toxic fungicides. Commercial biocontrol currently relies heavily on the well-known genera <em>Bacillus</em> and <em>Pseudomonas</em>; however, there is a critical need to discover and characterize novel bacterial agents with unique ecological niches and modes of action. Although <em>Ewingella americana</em> is a bacterial mycoparasite that causes black rot in various edible mushrooms, such as <em>Agaricus bisporus</em> and <em>Pleurotus ostreatus</em>, its potential use for the management of fungal diseases remains completely unexplored. In this study, <em>Alternaria alternata</em> was identified via morphological analysis and ITS, <em>EF1-α</em>, and <em>GADPH</em> sequencing as the causal agent of leaf spot in peanut plants in Nantong, China. Interestingly, a new <em>E</em>. <em>americana</em> strain, NJC80, was found coexisting with <em>A. alternata</em> in symptomatic peanut leaves. NJC80 inhibited <em>A. alternata</em> mycelial growth and spore germination, and exhibited a variety of antifungal mechanisms, including production of antifungal metabolites, competition for nutrients, and mycoparasitism. In plant growth chamber, preventive application of 1 × 10⁸ cells/mL NJC80 reduced Alternaria leaf spot disease index in peanut leaves by 76.3 %, showing higher efficacy than the commercial fungicide tebuconazole, 56.9 % inhibitory efficacy. Preventive application of 1 × 10⁸ cells/mL NJC80 reduced Alternaria leaf spot disease index in a peanut field by 85.9 %. This is the first report on the use of <em>E. americana</em> for biocontrol purposes, revealing its potential as a novel bacterial biocontrol agent for fungal disease management.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20046,"journal":{"name":"Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology","volume":"142 ","pages":"Article 103088"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145796970","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Replacing partial fosthiazate granule with soil amendments improves preventing efficiency for root-knot nematodes: the underlying mechanisms of integrating multi-omics evidence","authors":"Minjing Li ,&nbsp;Liqing Du ,&nbsp;Yufeng Chen ,&nbsp;Ronghui Wang ,&nbsp;Changbin Wei ,&nbsp;Chuanyao Wang ,&nbsp;Yihong Pan","doi":"10.1016/j.pmpp.2026.103121","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pmpp.2026.103121","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Fosthiazate granule is a commonly used chemical prevention for root-knot nematodes, which poses the risk of resistance and soil degradation. With the development of soil amendments, combining prevention strategies could reduce the dosage of chemical pesticides and improve soil structure. This study performed single chemical prevention (20% fosthiazate granule at a dosage of 30 kg/hm², MLT1) and combining prevention (20% fosthiazate granule reduced to 3.0 kg/hm² (1.5 kg/hm² at the transplanting and rosette stages, respectively), combining with soil amendments, MLT2) in a tobacco-plant field with a blank treatment (without any prevention) as control (MLCK1). Except for the evaluation of the prevention efficiency, mechanism investigations were also conducted from the perspectives of the root metabolome and rhizosphere microbial communities. Both MLT1 and MLT2 significantly changed the nematode community structure and suppressed the abundance of root-knot nematodes, and MLT2 showed a stronger inhibitory effect. Both prevention strategies improve the resistance of tobacco roots, but MLT2 activated more resistance signaling pathways (such as Phenylalanine, tyrosine and tryptophan pathway) and related metabolites (such as Gibberellin A6 and Jasmonic acid), improving the efficiency of prevention. MLT1 significantly suppressed the activities of soil enzymes, and it showed a single functional mechanism, mainly dependent on the enhancement of antagonistic nematodes, bacteria, and fungi. While MLT2 significantly improved the activities of soil enzymes and the prevention mechanisms involving diverse functional microorganisms, promoting the interaction between soil enzymes and microbial communities. MLT2 is more suitable for the long-term prevention of root-knot nematodes with more comprehensive soil improvement and more stable prevention effects, promoting the green and sustainable development of nematode prevention strategies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20046,"journal":{"name":"Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology","volume":"142 ","pages":"Article 103121"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146187513","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Morphological, cultural, molecular, and pathogenic characterization of Cladosporium proteacearum causing leaf and fruit blight on sweet pepper in the central Ecuadorian highlands","authors":"Edwin Pallo ,&nbsp;Felipe Rafael Garcés-Fiallos","doi":"10.1016/j.pmpp.2026.103130","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pmpp.2026.103130","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In this work, we aimed to identify and characterize the causal agent of leaf and fruit blight on sweet pepper (<em>Capsicum annuum</em> L.) in the central Ecuadorian highlands (Chimborazo and Tungurahua provinces) through morpho-cultural and molecular analysis, as well as pathogenicity tests. We obtained six strains (UTAC2023M1 … UTAC2023M6) in six different locations in the provinces of Chimborazo and Tungurahua. All these exhibited an olive-green coloration and morphological characteristics consistent with the diagnostic traits typically associated with members of the <em>Cladosporium</em> genus. Similar morphometry such as septate mycelium (width = <em>P ≤</em> 0.2762 and 4.61 ± 0.38 μm), micronematous conidiophores (length = <em>P ≤</em> 0.7715 and 30.83 ± 2.25 μm), microconidia (width = <em>P ≤</em> 0.6472 and 2.61 ± 0.48; length = <em>P ≤</em> 0.0994 and 5.00 ± 0.58), was observed in all strains. Additionally, ramoconidia was also observed but not quantified. Mycelial growth and slope were higher in strains UTAC2023M2, UTAC2023M3, and UTAC2023M1 than in other strains. Phylogenetic analysis of strains UTAC2023M1 and UTAC2023M6, based on the concatenation of the genes encoding actin, elongation factor 1 alpha, and internal transcribed spacer, confirmed the identification of the fungal species as <em>Cladosporium proteacearum</em>. Pathogenicity tests showed that all strains can cause leaf and fruit blight, with UTAC2023M1 being the most aggressive. To our knowledge, this is the first report of <em>C. proteacearum</em> causing leaf and fruit blight in sweet pepper crops worldwide.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20046,"journal":{"name":"Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology","volume":"142 ","pages":"Article 103130"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146187584","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Bacillus velezensis ATC-AL suppresses mycotoxin-producing fungi by disrupting membrane integrity and inducing mitochondrial dysfunction","authors":"Yuerong Zhang ,&nbsp;Kewei Hua ,&nbsp;Benni Ma ,&nbsp;Chen Yang,&nbsp;Panpan Zhu,&nbsp;Bingqian Hu,&nbsp;Humana Azhar,&nbsp;Qingru Geng,&nbsp;Fengqin Song,&nbsp;Jun Tian,&nbsp;Kunlong Yang","doi":"10.1016/j.pmpp.2025.103099","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pmpp.2025.103099","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div><em>Aspergillus flavus</em> is a predominant fungal contaminant, producing aflatoxin B1 (AFB₁), one of the most potent mycotoxins posing serious risks to global food safety. In this study, we evaluated the antifungal efficacy of <em>Bacillus velezensis</em> ATC-AL and its active antifungal substances (AAS) against <em>A. flavus</em> and other mycotoxin-producing fungi. The AAS treatment displayed broad-spectrum antifungal activity, completely suppressing AFB₁ synthesis at a minimum inhibitory concentration of 8 μL/mL. It also significantly reduced deoxynivalenol (DON) accumulation by <em>Fusarium graminearum</em>, indicating multi-target antitoxin potential. Mechanistic analyses revealed that AAS disrupts fungal membrane integrity and induces oxidative stress, as evidenced by elevated reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels, lipid peroxidation, and structural damage to the cell membrane and cell wall in <em>A. flavus</em>. Metabolomic profiling further revealed perturbations in the TCA cycle, glutathione metabolism, and nucleic acid biosynthesis, consistent with mitochondrial dysfunction and impaired energy metabolism. Correspondingly, AAS treatment caused a collapse in mitochondrial membrane potential and decreased ATP levels, suggesting apoptosis-like cell death. In grain kernel assays, AAS significantly inhibited fungal colonization and eliminated mycotoxin production, effectively protecting grains from infection by <em>A. flavus</em> and <em>F. graminearum</em>. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that <em>B.velezensis</em> ATC-AL functions as a promising biocontrol agent acting through multiple antifungal and anti-mycotoxin pathways, offering a sustainable strategy for mitigating fungal contamination and mycotoxin risk in grain storage systems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20046,"journal":{"name":"Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology","volume":"142 ","pages":"Article 103099"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145840134","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Genomic and biological characterization of two novel Erwinia amylovora phages from Türkiye","authors":"Eylul Evran ,&nbsp;Emine Kubra Tayyarcan ,&nbsp;Kubra Guven ,&nbsp;Esra Ekiz ,&nbsp;Esra Acar Soykut ,&nbsp;Metehan Arıkan ,&nbsp;Emre Keskin ,&nbsp;Ismail Hakki Boyaci","doi":"10.1016/j.pmpp.2025.103073","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pmpp.2025.103073","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Fire blight, caused by <em>Erwinia amylovora</em>, is a destructive disease resulting in significant economic losses and food waste worldwide. Current control strategies are often limited in efficacy, rely on harmful chemicals, and contribute to the emergence antibiotic resistance. Therefore, sustainable and effective alternatives are urgently needed. Among these, bacteriophages offered many advantages such as high specificity to host bacteria and minimal environmental impact, represent a promising biocontrol approach against to fire blight and the usage of local bacteria for phage isolation influences the success of such treatment. In this study, two phages named as EAP2 and EAP4 were isolated from Türkiye and characterized for their potential use in targeted, field-specific management of fire blight. While the genome sizes of these phages were found to be 85.7 and 86.2 kb, the contigs were 11,199 and 10,495, respectively. Morphological analysis revealed that both phages possess a large icosahedral head connected to a long tail. Additionally, their latent periods were 30 min, and the burst sizes were calculated as 66.7 and 100.0 PFU per infected cell for EAP2 and EAP4, respectively. Efficacy assays demonstrated that both phages significantly reduced <em>E. amylovora</em> populations at multiplicities of infection (MOI) ranging from 0.1 to 10. At an MOI of 0.1, bacterial counts decreased by 1.57 log units with EAP2, whereas at an MOI of 10, a 1.16 log unit reduction was observed with EAP4. Overall, these results highlight the strong potential of locally isolated bacteriophages as effective and sustainable biocontrol agents for managing fire blight in region-specific agricultural systems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20046,"journal":{"name":"Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology","volume":"142 ","pages":"Article 103073"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145747418","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Colletotrichum species associated with anthracnose of Camellia oleifera in Jiangxi Province, China","authors":"Weigang Kuang ,&nbsp;Wenna Gao ,&nbsp;Liangpeng Wan ,&nbsp;Yimei Li ,&nbsp;Yachun Lin ,&nbsp;Xugen Shi ,&nbsp;Lianhu Zhang ,&nbsp;Ruqiang Cui","doi":"10.1016/j.pmpp.2025.103067","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pmpp.2025.103067","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div><em>Camellia oleifera</em> is widely cultivated in China and has significant economic values in various aspects such as for food, industry, and medicinal applications. Anthracnose is a common and destructive disease of <em>Ca</em>. <em>oleifera</em>, which seriously impairs plant growth and yield. However, the <em>Colletotrichum</em> species causing anthracnose on tea-oil tree have not been clarified in Jiangxi Province, the second largest <em>Ca</em>. <em>oleifera</em> cultivation area in China. In this study, 26 isolates were obtained from diseased leaves collected in Jiangxi Province, China. These isolates were further characterized by combined morphological characteristics and multi-locus phylogenetic analysis. All identified species were confirmed to be the pathogen of <em>Ca. oleifera</em> anthracnose by Koch's postulates. Our results demonstrated that <em>C. fructicola</em>, <em>C. gloeosporioides</em> sensu stricto, <em>C. karsti</em> and <em>C. siamense</em> were associated with anthracnose in <em>Ca. oleifera</em> in Jiangxi Province based on four loci and morphological data. In addition, <em>C. fructicola</em> was the dominant species. To our knowledge, this is the first report of <em>C. karsti</em> associated with <em>Ca. oleifera</em> anthracnose in Jiangxi. These findings provide a scientific basis for anthracnose disease monitoring and management.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20046,"journal":{"name":"Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology","volume":"142 ","pages":"Article 103067"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145622721","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"First report of a stylar end rot disease of guava fruits caused by Lasiodiplodia pseudotheobromae in Ghana","authors":"Joseph Okani Honger ,&nbsp;Christiana Adukwei Amoatey ,&nbsp;Isaac Bedu ,&nbsp;Doreen Naa Sackey ,&nbsp;Karen Saahene Agyekum ,&nbsp;Shadrach Coffie ,&nbsp;Benjamin Otu","doi":"10.1016/j.pmpp.2025.103051","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pmpp.2025.103051","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>An investigation was conducted to identify the causal agent of a new stylar end rot disease affecting guava (<em>Psidium guajava</em> L.) fruits in Ghana. Symptomatic fruits were collected at random from fields in the Eastern region of Ghana. and fungal isolates were identified based on cultural and morphological characteristics, supported by sequence analysis of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and translation elongation factor 1-alpha (tef1-α) regions. <em>Lasiodiplodia pseudotheobromae</em> was consistently isolated and confirmed as pathogenic through Koch's postulates, producing similar symptoms on inoculated fruits. Phylogenetic analysis clustered the isolates with reference <em>L. pseudotheobromae</em> strains with high bootstrap support (99 %). This represents the first report of <em>L. pseudotheobromae</em> associated with guava stylar end rot in Ghana, warranting inclusion in the country's plant disease checklist.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20046,"journal":{"name":"Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology","volume":"142 ","pages":"Article 103051"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145622723","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Characterization and fungicidal sensitivity of Phytophthora species causing citrus gummosis in Pakistan","authors":"Hadeed Ahmad ,&nbsp;Muhammad Wahab ,&nbsp;Muhammad Atiq ,&nbsp;Muhammad Usman ,&nbsp;Muhammad Hamza Shahid ,&nbsp;Muhammad Usman Ali ,&nbsp;Owais Iqbal ,&nbsp;Muhammad Luqman Aleem ,&nbsp;Qurban Ali ,&nbsp;Nasir Ahmed Rajput","doi":"10.1016/j.pmpp.2025.103079","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pmpp.2025.103079","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Citrus gummosis, caused by <em>Phytophthora</em> species, is a major constraint on citrus production worldwide, including Pakistan. A survey of 180 orchards across six key citrus-growing districts of Punjab during 2022–2023 assessed disease incidence and severity. Average incidence ranged from 29.8 % to 43.97 %, highest in Sargodha, with severity between 20.0 % and 32.4 %. From 1350 symptomatic samples, 270 were selected for pathogen isolation, yielding 113 <em>Phytophthora</em> isolates. Morphological and multilocus sequencing (<em>ITS</em>, <em>β-tubulin</em>, <em>EF1-α</em>, <em>Cox-1</em>) of 20 representative isolates identified three species: <em>P. nicotianae</em>, <em>P. citrophthora</em>, and <em>P. palmivora</em>. This study reports for the first time <em>P. palmivora</em> as a cause of citrus gummosis in Punjab. Pathogenicity tests on ‘Kinnow’ mandarin confirmed all species as aggressive pathogens. <em>In vitro</em> fungicide sensitivity assays revealed substantial variability in EC₅₀ values among species and fungicides. Folio Gold (mefenoxam + chlorothalonil) showed the highest toxicity, with the lowest EC₅₀ values across all species, most notably 0.21 μg ml⁻¹ for <em>P. nicotianae</em>, followed by Ridomil Gold (metalaxyl-M). Revus exhibited the weakest efficacy, reflected in consistently higher EC₅₀ values. Sigmoidal dose–response modelling demonstrated strong curve fitting and narrow confidence intervals, confirming precise estimates. These trends aligned with growth-inhibition data, where Folio Gold achieved near-complete inhibition below 1 μg ml⁻¹, while other fungicides required higher doses. A heatmap visualization further highlighted distinct sensitivity patterns among species. Greenhouse trials confirmed these results, with Folio Gold reducing disease incidence to 2.2 % (96.6 % control) and improving plant biomass by over 80 %. <em>P. nicotianae</em> remains the most dominant and destructive species, but <em>P. citrophthora</em> and <em>P. palmivora</em> are also prevalent. Folio Gold and Ridomil Gold are the most effective fungicides under local conditions. These findings update pathogen diversity, disease impact, and management options, supporting sustainable citrus production in the region.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20046,"journal":{"name":"Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology","volume":"142 ","pages":"Article 103079"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145796872","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Identification and in vitro assessment of fungicide efficacy against fungal isolates causing root rot of yam (Dioscorea polystachya) in China","authors":"Jie Zhou ,&nbsp;Jie Zhang ,&nbsp;Qingqing Zhao ,&nbsp;Yarong Li ,&nbsp;Chuandong Qi ,&nbsp;Fengling Guo ,&nbsp;Jinping Wu","doi":"10.1016/j.pmpp.2025.103074","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pmpp.2025.103074","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div><em>Dioscorea polystachya</em> (Chinese yam) is a high-value crop in China, with a vast production area and an annual market value estimated at billions of RMB. The spread of root rot disease, which severely reduces yield and marketability, therefore represents a significant threat to the profitability and sustainability of this agricultural sector. This study aimed to isolate and identify the pathogen of yam root rot in Xiangyang City, Hubei Province, and evaluate their sensitivity to four commonly used fungicides. Pathogens were isolated from symptomatic tubers, cultured on PDA (25 °C), and confirmed by Koch's postulates. Identification integrated morphological characteristics with multilocus phylogenetic analysis (ITS, <em>TUB2</em>, <em>TEF1</em>, <em>ACT</em>). In vitro fungicide sensitivity was determined by half-maximal effective concentration (EC₅₀) assays. Two pathogenic <em>Neocosmospora</em> species were identified: <em>N. falciformis</em> exhibited low sensitivity to all tested fungicides, while <em>N. solani</em> was most sensitive to difenoconazole (EC₅₀ = 1.76 μg mL⁻¹). This study provides the first evidence confirming <em>Neocosmospora falciformis</em> as a causal agent of Chinese yam root rot in Hubei Province, China. <em>In vitro</em> assays revealed that difenoconazole was the most effective fungicide against <em>N</em>. <em>solani</em> (EC₅₀ = 1.76 μg mL⁻¹), while iprodione showed the best inhibition against <em>N. falciformis</em> (EC₅₀ = 30.15 μg mL⁻¹), providing critical information for integrated disease management.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20046,"journal":{"name":"Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology","volume":"142 ","pages":"Article 103074"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145796873","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}