Crop Plants and Biotic Stress

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Crop Physiology and Crop Production".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2022) | Viewed by 2493

Special Issue Editors

Department of Botany, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
Interests: plant ecophysiology; biotic stress; abiotic stress; photosynthesis; antioxidative mechanisms; photoprotective mechanisms; mineral nutrition; ROS
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Department of Food Science-Plant, Food and Sustainability, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
Interests: plant physiology; biological pesticides; plant-based fertilizers; plant-insect-microbe interactions
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Universal, 25 to 35% of crop yield is lost each year because of pests and pathogens, requiring a 30 billion USD per year agrochemical industry. Disease control using agrochemicals increases energy consumption, environmental pollution, and the cost of production. Plant breeders count on genetic variation for disease resistance in their selection of superior crop varieties. Disease‐tolerant plants limit symptom development even though they are heavily infected, but they can still be an important source that can infect susceptible plants. Some pathogenic species attack harvested seeds, grains, roots and fruits after harvest, during transport and storage and cause post‐harvest losses, that can rigorously decrease market value.

A detail understanding of interactions between plants and viruses, bacteria, oomycetes, fungi, nematodes, and insects provide sustainable solutions for the control of crop diseases and the increasing demand for food supply worldwide. Understanding plant–biotic interactions leading to disease can elucidate how other organisms co‐exist within a plant without triggering harm, and how symbiotic organisms establish beneficial interactions with plants, a research area that the last years has led to an increasing interest in the application of beneficial microbes in agriculture.

Plants defend themselves against pathogens and pests through constitutive and inducible defenses, and other response mechanisms, while pests and pathogens in turn have evolved adaptations to defeat these mechanisms. Diverse molecular processes regulate the interactions between plants and other biotic organisms, and consequent compensatory processes in the plants. A better understanding of the extensive range of plant responses to biotic organisms can result from studies on how tissue injury changes the plant’s physiology, especially photosynthesis, which is common to higher plants. The damage caused by herbivores is mainly assessed as the amount of leaf tissue consumed, supposing that the leftover tissue is "undamaged". However, photosynthesis of the remaining tissue can be suppressed by herbivory, but it can also be increased.

Plant defence reactions to biotic stress implicate complicated biochemical pathways and multiple signal molecules, including jasmonic acid (JA), ethylene, salicylic acid (SA), reactive oxygen species (ROS), and nitric oxide (NO), to provoke the induction of secondary metabolites and proteins, both at the infection site and systemically throughout the attacked plant. Within minutes of pathogen, insect, or nematode attack, plant defence responses are activated locally, and within hours, defence responses are expanded in tissues distant from the invasion site and even in neighbouring plants. Examining the molecular mechanisms by which crop plants defend themselves from attack by pathogens and pests is crucial for the control of crop diseases.

Prof. Dr. Michael Moustakas
Dr. Julietta Moustaka
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • plant pathogens
  • pests
  • crop diseases
  • disease‐tolerant plants
  • herbivores
  • compensatory process
  • plant defence responses
  • systemic response
  • beneficial microbes
  • signal molecules

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

16 pages, 1811 KiB  
Article
Exploring Thrips Preference and Resistance in Flowers, Leaves, and Whole Plants of Ten Capsicum Accessions
by Isabella G. S. Visschers, Mirka Macel, Janny L. Peters, Lidiya Sergeeva, Jan Bruin and Nicole M. van Dam
Plants 2023, 12(4), 825; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12040825 - 13 Feb 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1575
Abstract
Capsicum species grown for pepper production suffer severely from thrips damage, urging the identification of natural resistance. Resistance levels are commonly assessed on leaves. However, Capsicum plants are flower-bearing during most of the production season, and thrips also feed on pollen and flower [...] Read more.
Capsicum species grown for pepper production suffer severely from thrips damage, urging the identification of natural resistance. Resistance levels are commonly assessed on leaves. However, Capsicum plants are flower-bearing during most of the production season, and thrips also feed on pollen and flower tissues. In order to obtain a comprehensive estimate of elements contributing to thrips resistance, flower tissues should be considered as well. Therefore, we assessed resistance to Frankliniella occidentalis in flowers, leaves, and whole plants of ten Capsicum accessions. Using choice assays, we found that thrips prefer flowers of certain accessions over others. The preference of adult thrips for flowers was positively correlated to trehalose and fructose concentration in anthers as well as to pollen quantity. Resistance measured on leaf discs and thrips population development on whole plants was significantly and positively correlated. Leaf-based resistance thus translates to reduced thrips population development. Results of the flower assays were not significantly correlated with resistance in leaves or on whole plants. This suggests that both leaves and flowers represent a different part of the resistance spectrum and should both be considered for understanding whole plant resistance and the identification of resistant Capsicum varieties. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Crop Plants and Biotic Stress)
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