Management of Seed Borne Fungal Diseases of Tomato: A Review

Abstract

Plant diseases caused by different kinds of microorganisms either carried through air, water or present in soil, seeds or propagative planting materials have adverse impact on agriculture production and economy worldwide. Apart from other crops vegetables are also subjected to several seed borne fungal, bacterial and viral pathogens, which cause substantial yield loss upto 10 percent in Pakistan. This article gives vast information regarding significance and prevalence of various kinds of seed borne mycoflora (Alternaria solani, Fusarium oxysporum, F. solani, Botrytis cineria, A. alternata, Chaetomium globosum, Curvularia lunata, Aspergillus niger, Drechslera specifer and Rhizoctonia solani) particularly associated with seeds of tomato. These mycoflora are causative agents of devastating tomato diseases like early blight, fusarium wilt and foot rots, grey mold, root and fruit rots. A range of conventional and modern techniques employed for seed borne fungal detection and different control strategies including chemical and biological methods opted by researchers have been reviewed in present paper. A variety of factors like availability of susceptible plants, favorable environmental conditions and overhead irrigation are serious constraints for plant disease development. Under these conditions, monitoring of plant health and detection of diseases particularly using seed detection assays to screen infested seed lots before planting provide effective disease management strategy.

Constituents Leached by Tomato Seeds Regulate the Behavior of Root-Knot Nematodes and Their Antifungal Effects against Seed-Borne Fungi

“…The attraction of the J2s to nicotinic acid ( 14) may be due to the acidic carboxyl group in the molecule. Additionally, thymine (15) and xanthine ( 16) were weakly or not preferred by the J2s (Figure 4). However, the J2s were preferentially attracted by the control compared to dihydrocapsaicin (17) and solasodine ( 18) at the tested concentrations (Figure 4), implying that these molecules might have a deterrent effect, with the highest deterrent activities of 41.5 and 42.9%, respectively.…”

“…flavus is able to infect and contaminate preharvest and postharvest seed crops, generating carcinogenic aflatoxins Fusarium oxysporum can adhere to or can be mixed with seeds, causing diseases characterized by vascular wilting . The consistently increasing resistance to fungicides of these seed-borne fungi and the need to reduce chemical residues on the final products at harvest underscore the urgency of exploring natural alternatives for the commercial, chemically synthesized fungicides used in the agricultural industry.…”

Screening of sesame germplasm against major foliar diseases

“…Among diseases, the economically important one is Alternaria leaf blight caused by Alternaria sesami (Kawa.) Mohanty and Behera and A. alternata (Chohan, 1978) [6] , which cause seed rot, pre-and post-emergence death of seedlings and infect all the above ground parts resulting in considerable loss in yield both qualitatively and quantitatively (Naik et al, 2004) [15] . The typical symptoms of Alternaria sesami infection start with small greyish spots on the lower leaf surface, progressing to concentric brown spots on the upper surface, eventually forming a distinct target-like pattern with concentric rings at the center (Savitha et al, 2012) [19] .…”

Antifungal Properties of Pimenta racemosa (Mill.) and Mentha x piperita (L.) Essential Oils against Fusarium oxysporum Causing Tomato Fruit Rot

“…Various micro-organisms are responsible for the post-harvest decay of tomatoes, with fungi or bacteria are the most destructive [10]. According to Chohan et al [11], tomatoes are vulnerable to attack by different fungal pathogens, including soilborne, airborne and seedborne. Mycopathogens such as Fusarium oxysporum are one of the major causes of post-harvest tomato deterioration in humid regions.…”