Abstract
Diseases caused by Sclerotinia sclerotiorum (Lib) de Bary are difficult to control and cause increasing losses of horticultural crops worldwide. Reasons of this phenomenon are various: (i) the specialization of crop production that causes the accumulation of the pathogen in the soil; (ii) the lack of a safe and efficient method of soil fumigation; (iii) the specific life cycle of S. sclerotiorum with survival structures (sclerotia), resistant to chemical and biological degradation. Sclerotinia diseases depend on many environmental factors which determine sclerotia survival and ascospores dissemination, because plants are mainly infected by air-borne ascospores from carpogenic germination of sclerotia. Due to the lack of effective synthetic agents for eradication of S. sclerortiorum from soil considerable interest has been focused on biological control, especially the selection of microorganisms with mycoparasitic activity towards S. sclerotiorum sclerotia, that can decrease their number in the soil. In this work we review reports on the use of different antagonistic fungi and bacteria in the control of S. sclerotiorum and discuss the suppressive effect of organic amendments against this soil-borne pathogen.
Highlights
Fungicides applied during the bloom period are effective in inhibiting infection by ascospores in fields with a history of diseases caused by S. sclerotiorum
The effective control of S. sclerotiorum requires application of fungicides during sensitive time frames, the number of treatments depending on the length of the crop vegetation period and on how long flowers or petals are available for infection by ascospores (Heffer Link and Johnson 2007)
Similar results were obtained by Cook et al (1975), who concluded that sclerotia from upper layers were degraded faster than sclerotia placed deeper in the soil profile, whereas Duncan et al (2006) showed that the viability of S. sclerotiorum sclerotia, buried at 0, 5 and 10 cm, decreased with depth
Summary
The fungus infects leaves, flowers, fruits and stems of the host plants, inducing diseases that can develop during the vegetation period or at the post-harvest stage, and cause severe losses to economically important crops in temperate regions of the world, mainly bean, carrot, pea, lettuce, mustard, canola, lentil and sunflower (Fernando et al 2004; Clarkson et al 2004; Del Rio et al 2007). Fungicides applied during the bloom period are effective in inhibiting infection by ascospores in fields with a history of diseases caused by S. sclerotiorum. The effective control of S. sclerotiorum requires application of fungicides during sensitive time frames, the number of treatments depending on the length of the crop vegetation period and on how long flowers or petals are available for infection by ascospores (Heffer Link and Johnson 2007). In the absence of resistant cultivars and environmentally friendly methods for the eradication of S. sclerotiorum from soils, research on biological methods was initiated, among which the application of antagonistic microorganisms and organic amendments, as discussed in the present review
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