Protective activity of the fungal polysaccharides against fusariosis

Abstract

Most of the experiments carried out in the area of plant protection have used chitin and chitosan obtained from the crustacean chitin which production is rather expensive. In our study we have applied the chitin-glucan complex prepared from the waste mycelia of filamentous fungi, from baker’s yeast. Five different polysaccharides have been used for the preparation of water-soluble compounds and the assay of their antifungal activity against plant pathogen Fusarium oxysporum. In the field experiments, application of the polysaccharides led to the diminished infestation as well as to significantly increased productivity of fresh weight of the plants (tomato). The results demonstrated that application of the polysaccharides led to increased production of cell wall and some outher and intermembrane-bound proteins. Although the nature of the observed proteins has not been yet established, it can be speculated that they represent some enzymes involved in the antiinfective defense mechanisms in plants.