Fungicide resistance risk assessment based on traits associated with the rate of pathogen evolution.

Background: A new fungicide resistance risk assessment method is described, based on traits (of pathogens, fungicides and agronomic systems) that are associated with rapid or slow occurrence of resistance. Candidate traits tested for their predictive value were those for which there was a mechanistic rationale that they could be determinants of the rate of resistance evolution.

Results: A dataset of 61 European cases of resistance against single-site-acting fungicides was assembled.

Evaluation of a matrix to calculate fungicide resistance risk.

Background: In the European Union, assessments of resistance risk are required by the regulatory authorities for each fungicide product and are used to guide the extent of anti-resistance strategies. This paper reports an evaluation of a widely used 'risk matrix', to determine its predictive value. Sixty-seven unique cases of fungicide resistance in Europe were identified for testing the risk assessment scheme, where each case was the first occurrence of resistance in a pathogen species against a fungicide group.

Foliar pathogenesis and plant water relations: a review.

As the world population grows, there is a pressing need to improve productivity from water use in irrigated and rain-fed agriculture. Foliar diseases have been reported to decrease crop water-use efficiency (WUE) substantially, yet the effects of plant pathogens are seldom considered when methods to improve WUE are debated. We review the effects of foliar pathogens on plant water relations and the consequences for WUE.

Progress towards the understanding and control of sugar beet rhizomania disease.

Rhizomania is a soil-borne disease that occurs throughout the major sugar beet growing regions of the world, causing severe yield losses in the absence of effective control measures. It is caused by Beet necrotic yellow vein virus (BNYVV), which is transmitted by the obligate root-infecting parasite Polymyxa betae. BNYVV has a multipartite RNA genome with all natural isolates containing four RNA species, although some isolates have a fifth RNA.