Plant bioactive compounds provide novel straightforward approaches to control plant diseases. Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus)-derived extracts carry many prominent pharmacological activities, including antimicrobial and antioxidant, mainly due to its phenolic compounds, rosmarinic acid (RA), carnosic acid and carnosol. However, the effects of these extracts on plant diseases are still unknown, which constrains its potential application as bioprotectant in the agricultural production.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCitrus is an economically important fruit crop that is severely afflicted by citrus canker, a disease caused by the bacterial phytopathogen, Xanthomonas citri subsp. citri (Xcc). GenBank houses a large collection of Expressed Sequence Tags (ESTs) enriched with transcripts generated during the defence response against this pathogen; however, there are currently no strategies in citrus to assess the function of candidate genes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo evaluate the role of salicylic acid (SA) in Nb-mediated hypersensitive resistance to Potato virus X (PVX) avirulent strain ROTH1 in Solanum tuberosum, we have constructed SA-deficient transgenic potato plant lines by overexpressing the bacterial enzyme salicylate hydroxylase (NahG), which degrades SA. Evaluation of these transgenic lines revealed hydrogen peroxide accumulation and spontaneous lesion formation in an age- and light-dependent manner. In concordance, NahG potato plants were more sensitive to treatment with methyl viologen, a reactive oxygen species-generating compound.
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