Blackleg disease caused by Phoma lingam is an important disease of oil seed rape (Brassica napus) causing losses up to 95%. The efficacy of microbial antagonists against P. lingam in greenhouse was tested. Serratia plymuthica HRO-C48 and Gliocladium catenulatum J1446 were able to reduce the disease intensity of OSR cotelydones infested with P. lingam at rates 44% and 52% respectively. The reduction of the infestation of the root collar in BBCH14/15 was evaluated as well. Plants treated with a suspension of the antagonists (2 × 10 5 cfu/plant) and inoculated with either pycnidiospore suspension (2 × 10 7 cfu/ml) or agar disks grown with P. lingam mycelium, showed a reduced infestation rate of 53% -93% in the presence of S. plymuthica and 46% -77% in the presence of G. catenulatum. The efficacy of the antagonist depends highly on their concentration inside OSR seeds. Below 10 5 cfu/seed no significant difference was recorded between control untreated and infested plants.

Moalla, M., A. Ahmed, O. Hammoudi and I.D. Ismail. 2020. Effect of the bacterial strain Bacillus subtilis FZB27 in controlling cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) in pepper plants grown under greenhouse conditions. Arab Journal of Plant Protection, 38(2): 130-136. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of bacterial strain Bacillus subtilis FZB27 on growth and productivity improvement of pepper plants infected with cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) using three different applications (treated seeds, irrigated with bacterial suspension, treated seeds + irrigated with bacterial suspension). Pepper seeds were soaked for 12 hours in a suspension of B. subtilis FZB27 with concentration of 9×10 9 cfu/ml. Ten days later, the seedlings were irrigated with 20 ml of the same concentration suspension of B. subtilis FZB27, then inoculated with CMV one week after transplanting. The results showed that, there was a significant increase in: (i) Plants height and roots length of the bacterial treated plants compared to the healthy control, and significant increase in the height and roots length of the infected and bacterial treated plants compared to the infected control, with best results obtained from the treated seeds + irrigation with bacterial suspension treatment, with no significant differences among the different treatments, and (ii) Increased fruits weight and the root fresh and dry weight and vegetative growth of the bacterial treated plants compared to the healthy control, and significant increase of the CMV-infected and bacterial treated plants compared to the infected control, with best results obtained from the treated seeds + irrigation with bacterial suspension treatment, with no significant differences among the treatment methods.

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Mouhanna, A.M., O.N. Hamoudi, M.M. Mofleh and H.S. Barhoum. 2019. Genetic variability between Fusarium spp. isolates collected from Solanacious plants in Syria with emphasis on F. oxysporum infecting tomato. Arab Journal of Plant Protection, 37(4): 293-302.This study aimed to investigate the genetic variability of Fusarium spp. isolates collected from Solanacious plants (tomato, pepper and eggplant) in Syria. 20 primers for RAPD marker were used on 59 fungal isolates. Results showed that 14 primers had the ability to amplify one or multi sites of the fungal genome. The total number of amplified fragments was 123, with a polymorphism rate of 81.3%. The phylogenetic tree showed that the isolates can be divided into two main groups (G1, G2) at a genetic similarity level of 0.58. The G1 group included F. solani isolates and the G2 group included F. oxysporum isolates. When the ISSR technique was applied on 11 F. oxysporum isolates collected from a tomato plant, 12 out of 20 primers were able to amplify 110 fragments with a polymorphism rate of 52.72%. The ISSR phylogenetic tree showed that these isolates can be divided into six groups, more or less associated with their pathogenicity (0-68%). This is the first study on genetic variability of Fusarium spp. on Solanacious plants with emphasis on F. oxysporum isolates from tomato throughout Syria.

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