Floral traits affecting fire blight infection and management

Farkas, Ágnes; Mihalik, Erzsébet; Dorgai, László; Bubán, T.

doi:10.1007/s00468-011-0627-x

Cited by 38 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 146 publications

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“…Erwinia amylovora (fire blight) infects plants in the family Rosaceae, including fruit crops such as apple and pear (Farkas et al . ). The most common site of E. amylovora infection is the hypanthium, where nectar is secreted.…”

Section: Plant Pathogensmentioning

confidence: 97%

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Arranging the bouquet of disease: floral traits and the transmission of plant and animal pathogens

et al. 2014

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Several floral microbes are known to be pathogenic to plants or floral visitors such as pollinators. Despite the ecological and economic importance of pathogens deposited in flowers, we often lack a basic understanding of how floral traits influence disease transmission. Here, we provide the first systematic review regarding how floral traits attract vectors (for plant pathogens) or hosts (for animal pathogens), mediate disease establishment and evolve under complex interactions with plant mutualists that can be vectors for microbial antagonists. Attraction of floral visitors is influenced by numerous phenological, morphological and chemical traits, and several plant pathogens manipulate floral traits to attract vectors. There is rapidly growing interest in how floral secondary compounds and antimicrobial enzymes influence disease establishment in plant hosts. Similarly, new research suggests that consumption of floral secondary compounds can reduce pathogen loads in animal pollinators. Given recent concerns about pollinator declines caused in part by pathogens, the role of floral traits in mediating pathogen transmission is a key area for further research. We conclude by discussing important implications of floral transmission of pathogens for agriculture, conservation and human health, suggesting promising avenues for future research in both basic and applied biology.

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Section: Plant Pathogensmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…The pathogen then gains entry to inner floral tissues via the nectar‐secreting stomata (Farkas et al . ). Bees are common vectors of E. amylovora , moving the pathogen from diseased to healthy flowers (Alexandrova et al .…”

Section: Plant Pathogensmentioning

confidence: 97%

Arranging the bouquet of disease: floral traits and the transmission of plant and animal pathogens

et al. 2014

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“…Apple flower longevity from bloom to senescence is at most two weeks, occurring in the early spring in temperate climates, and much research has been devoted to understanding the relationship between the fire blight pathogen and possible antagonistic species and flower biology (16). As one example, apple flower age is important for the growth rate of E. amylovora on the flower (17, 18).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unexpected Diversity during Community Succession in the Apple Flower Microbiome

Shade

McManus

Handelsman

2013

mBio

232

183

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Despite its importance to the host, the flower microbiome is poorly understood. We report a culture-independent, community-level assessment of apple flower microbial diversity and dynamics. We collected flowers from six apple trees at five time points, starting before flowers opened and ending at petal fall. We applied streptomycin to half of the trees when flowers opened. Assessment of microbial diversity using tag pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA genes revealed that the apple flower communities were rich and diverse and dominated by members of TM7 and Deinococcus-Thermus, phyla about which relatively little is known. From thousands of taxa, we identified six successional groups with coherent dynamics whose abundances peaked at different times before and after bud opening. We designated the groups Pioneer, Early, Mid, Late, Climax, and Generalist communities. The successional pattern was attributed to a set of prevalent taxa that were persistent and gradually changing in abundance. These taxa had significant associations with other community members, as demonstrated with a cooccurrence network based on local similarity analysis. We also detected a set of less-abundant, transient taxa that contributed to general tree-to-tree variability but not to the successional pattern. Communities on trees sprayed with streptomycin had slightly lower phylogenetic diversity than those on unsprayed trees but did not differ in structure or succession. Our results suggest that changes in apple flower microbial community structure are predictable over the life of the flower, providing a basis for ecological understanding and disease management.

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“…In addition to flowers, E. amylovora can also infect shoots, leading to shoot blight. For P. agglomerans, floral traits, including age, stigma morphology and longevity, play a major role in the onset of disease and the efficacy of biocontrol (Farkas et al, 2012;Spinelli et al, 2005). Antibiosis on stigmas is a major mode of action for pathogen suppression (Pusey et al, 2011), confirming earlier suggestions (Pusey and Smith, 2008).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Modelling the dynamics of a plant pathogen and a biological control agent in relation to flowering pattern and populations present on leaves

Jeger

2015

Ecological Modelling

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a b s t r a c tA flexible model for biological control of a plant pathogen affecting host flowers is developed which takes into account the transfer of both the plant pathogen and the biological control agent (BCA) from the leaves to flowers. Because flowers, other than in ornamental plants, are largely ephemeral, the emphasis in analysis is on the rates of transfer and establishment on flowers. The form of the model analysed depends upon: the pattern of flowering for a particular host plant, a single instantaneous flush or continuous seasonal production; the effect of flowering phenology and morphology on transfer of both the pathogen and BCA; and the transient dynamics of such transfer. In the case of a single instantaneous flush, the relative importance of mycoparasitism and competition in protecting flowers during their short period of blooming is assessed. Where flowering is continuous but transfer lags behind because of floral phenology or morphology, a comparison is made between the initial levels of the pathogen and the BCA as they transfer to the flowers, depending again on the relative contribution of mycoparasitism and competition over the extended period of blooming. Differential rates of transfer of the pathogen and the BCA, depending on their time-dependent population densities on leaves, have a major impact on eventual biocontrol outcomes. The model results are used to analyse biocontrol strategies for contrasting host-pathogen systems which show different flowering patterns and biological control mechanisms. For Erwinia amylovora causing fireblight in pome fruit trees, an inundative biocontrol strategy targeting flowers is supported. In Botrytis cinerea, there is considerable potential for a strategy based on the establishment of BCAs on leaves for some of the plant hosts affected.

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Floral traits affecting fire blight infection and management

Cited by 38 publications

References 146 publications

Arranging the bouquet of disease: floral traits and the transmission of plant and animal pathogens

Arranging the bouquet of disease: floral traits and the transmission of plant and animal pathogens

Unexpected Diversity during Community Succession in the Apple Flower Microbiome

Modelling the dynamics of a plant pathogen and a biological control agent in relation to flowering pattern and populations present on leaves

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