Control of fire blight by bacteriophages on apple flowers
2011
Schwarczinger, I. | Kiss, E. | Sule, S. | Toth, M. | Kheveshi, M. A. (Marii︠a︡ Akoshevna)
Bacteriophages which are able to infect Erwinia amylovora, the fire blight pathogen, were isolated from apple, quince and pear tissues showing symptoms of fire blight. After examination in liquid bacterial culture of four of the bacteriophages isolated, two were chosen for treatment of apple flowers. Three susceptible apple cultivars were treated with phages and inoculated with the pathogen. On all of the three apple cultivars tested, bacteriophages significantly reduced the number of bacteria that could be re-isolated from flowers by at least 45%. The best results were obtained on the moderately resistant apple cultivar ‘Freedom’, on which the phage H6 reduced the number of bacteria that could be re-isolated by 90%. It can be concluded that the bacteriophages used in this study are highly efficient in eliminating E. amylovora on apple flowers under in vitro conditions. Therefore, these bacteriophages have the potential to be used as biological control of fire blight in the future.
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