Background: Attractant-based trapping is used in the establishment of pest-free areas and areas of low pest prevalence for fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae). Male lures are commonly used attractants in fruit fly trapping. In this study, the effects of male lure dispensers, traps and combinations of dispensers and traps on monitoring of two fruit fly pests, Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann) and Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel), were investigated in South Africa.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFScirtothrips aurantii Faure (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) is a major pest of citrus fruit in subtropical southern Africa. Population monitoring is an important aspect of S. aurantii control, but additional information is required on its phenology.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo cause diseases in plants, pathogenic microorganisms have evolved mechanisms to deliver proteins directly into plant cells, where they suppress plant defences and facilitate tissue invasion. How plant pathogenic fungi, which cause many of the world's most serious plant diseases, deliver proteins during plant infection is currently unknown. Here we report the characterization of a P-type ATPase-encoding gene, MgAPT2, in the economically important rice blast pathogen Magnaporthe grisea, which is required for exocytosis during plant infection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPowdery mildew fungi are biotrophic pathogens that form a complex interface, the haustorium, between the host plant and the parasite. The pathogen acts as an additional sink, competing with host sinks, resulting in considerable modification of photoassimilate production and partitioning within the host tissue. Here, we examine the factors that may contribute to these changes.
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