Apple Disease Research Articles

Signs, Causes, Fighting Apple Diseases

Numerous diseases often damage apples in home orchards each year. These include fly agaric and sooty mold, summer blight, black rot, powdery mildew, and cedar apple rust. This article discusses the signs, causes, progression, treatment, and preventive measures for several apple tree diseases. Some infections attack the tree roots in the fall, but symptoms do not appear until the following spring, when the tree can no longer absorb enough water and nutrients to continue growing. Disease control in apple orchards is difficult due to the lack of effective chemical treatments. Preventive measures can help control these diseases.

Diagnosis of Custard Apple Disease Based on Adaptive Information Entropy Data Augmentation and Multiscale Region Aggregation Interactive Visual Transformers

Accurate diagnosis of plant diseases is crucial for crop health. This study introduces the EDA–ViT model, a Vision Transformer (ViT)-based approach that integrates adaptive entropy-based data augmentation for diagnosing custard apple (Annona squamosa) diseases. Traditional models like convolutional neural network and ViT face challenges with local feature extraction and large dataset requirements. EDA–ViT overcomes these by using a multi-scale weighted feature aggregation and a feature interaction module, enhancing both local and global feature extraction. The adaptive data augmentation method refines the training process, boosting accuracy and robustness. With a dataset of 8226 images, EDA–ViT achieved a classification accuracy of 96.58%, an F1 score of 96.10%, and a Matthews Correlation Coefficient (MCC) of 92.24%, outperforming other models. The inclusion of the Deformable Multi-head Self-Attention (DMSA) mechanism further enhanced feature capture. Ablation studies revealed that the adaptive augmentation contributed to a 0.56% accuracy improvement and a 0.34% increase in MCC. In summary, EDA–ViT presents an innovative solution for custard apple disease diagnosis, with potential applications in broader agricultural disease detection, ultimately aiding precision agriculture and crop health management.

CNN Models Approaches for Robust Classification of Apple Diseases

In this research, the performance of several CNN models for diagnosing diseases in apple leaves is critically assessed. Due to this, early identification of diseases in agriculture is essential to boost productivity and avoid losses. In this context, disease identification was carried out with CNN models including ResNet50 and InceptionV4, Xception, DenseNet121, EfficientNetV2_m, and VGG13. While diagnosing the performance of each model the key parameters like Accuracy, Precision, Recall, and F1 score were computed. The accuracy values obtained show that all the discussed models are very accurate. However, it should be pointed out that the EfficientNetV2_m model is the best one in terms of accuracy and F1 score of 100%. This has shown that the EfficientNetV2_m gives a better detection of diseases in apple leaves compared to other models. The outcomes of the research reveal that in comparison to the conventional machine learning methodologies, the outcomes of the deep learning methods can prove to be much more beneficial for the agricultural sector by presenting a vision of how they can be incorporated and employed for improving the different sectors of management in the agricultural field. Summing up, the present research has shown the efficiency of the deep learning models in detecting diseases on apple leaves and has made a substantial contribution to the development of this line of study. In regards to the recommendations, the authors propose considering increasing the size of the sets and switching to the utilization of more advanced algorithms to enhance the present model. Thus, diseases found in agriculture will be identified easily and may also be more efficient in creating efficiency in the agriculture business.

The MdERF61-mdm-miR397b-MdLAC7b module regulates apple resistance to Fusarium solani via lignin biosynthesis.

Apple replant disease (ARD) is a worldwide problem that threatens the industry. However, the genetic mechanism underlying plant disease resistance against ARD remains unclear. In this study, a negative regulatory microRNA in Malus domestica, mdm-miR397b \, and its direct target MdLAC7b (Laccase) was selected for examination based on our previous small RNA and degradome sequencing results. Overexpressing the mdm-miR397b-MdLAC7b module altered the lignin deposition and JA contents in apple roots, which also led to increased resistance to Fusarium solani. Additionally, Y1H library screening using mdm-miR397b promoter recombinants identified a transcription factor, MdERF61, that represses mdm-miR397b transcriptional activity by directly binding to two GCC-boxes in the mdm-miR397b promoter. In summary, our results suggest that the MdERF61-mdm-miR397b-MdLAC7b module plays a crucial role in apple resistance to F. solani and offers insights for enhancing plant resistance to soilborne diseases in apple.

Patulin inhibition of specific apple microbiome members uncovers Hanseniaspora uvarum as a potential biocontrol agent.

Penicillium expansum is a major postharvest pathogen of apples, causing loss in fruits through tissue damage, as well as in apple products due to contamination with the mycotoxin patulin. During infections, patulin is a cultivar-dependent virulence factor that facilitates apple lesion development. Patulin also has characterized antimicrobial activity and is important for inhibiting other competitive phytopathogens, but the role of this inhibitory activity has not been investigated in the context of the apple microbiome. In our current study, we isolated 68 apple microbiota and characterized their susceptibility to P. expansum extracts. We found Gram-negative bacteria and Basidiomycete yeast to demonstrate largely patulin-specific growth inhibition compared to Gram-positive and Ascomycete isolates. From co-cultures, we identified a Hanseniaspora and Gluconobacter pairing that reduced P. expansum biomass and found that Hanseniaspora uvarum alone is sufficient to reduce apple disease progression in vivo. We investigated possible mechanisms of H. uvarum biocontrol activity and found modest inhibition on apple puree plates, as well as a trend toward lower patulin levels at the wound site. Active biocontrol activity required live yeast, which also were effective in controlling Botrytis cinerea apple infections. Lastly, we explored the breadth of H. uvarum biocontrol activity with over 30 H. uvarum isolates and found consistent inhibition of P. expansum apple disease.

Classifying early apple scab infections in multispectral imagery using convolutional neural networks

Multispectral imaging systems combined with deep learning classification models can be cost-effective tools for the early detection of apple scab (Venturia inaequalis) disease in commercial orchards. Near-infrared (NIR) imagery can display apple scab symptoms earlier and at a greater severity than visible-spectrum (RGB) imagery. Early apple scab diagnosis based on NIR imagery may be automated using deep learning convolutional neural networks (CNNs). CNN models have previously been used to classify a range of apple diseases accurately but have primarily focused on identifying late-stage rather than early-stage detection. This study fine-tunes CNN models to classify apple scab symptoms as they progress from the early to late stages of infection using a novel multispectral (RGB-NIR) time series created especially for this purpose.This novel multispectral dataset was used in conjunction with a large Apple Disease Identification (ADID) dataset created from publicly available, pre-existing disease datasets. This ADID dataset contained 29,000 images of infection symptoms across six disease classes. Two CNN models, the lightweight MobileNetV2 and heavyweight EfficientNetV2L, were fine-tuned and used to classify each disease class in a testing dataset, with performance assessed through metrics derived from confusion matrices. The models achieved scab-prediction accuracies of 97.13 % and 97.57 % for MobileNetV2 and EfficientNetV2L, respectively, on the secondary data but only achieved accuracies of 74.12 % and 78.91 % when applied to the multispectral dataset in isolation. These lower performance scores were attributed to a higher proportion of false-positive scab predictions in the multispectral dataset. Time series analyses revealed that both models could classify apple scab infections earlier than the manual classification techniques, leading to more false-positive assessments, and could accurately distinguish between healthy and infected samples up to 7 days post-inoculation in NIR imagery.

Fruit and vegetable leaf disease recognition based on a novel custom convolutional neural network and shallow classifier.

Fruits and vegetables are among the most nutrient-dense cash crops worldwide. Diagnosing diseases in fruits and vegetables is a key challenge in maintaining agricultural products. Due to the similarity in disease colour, texture, and shape, it is difficult to recognize manually. Also, this process is time-consuming and requires an expert person. We proposed a novel deep learning and optimization framework for apple and cucumber leaf disease classification to consider the above challenges. In the proposed framework, a hybrid contrast enhancement technique is proposed based on the Bi-LSTM and Haze reduction to highlight the diseased part in the image. After that, two custom models named Bottleneck Residual with Self-Attention (BRwSA) and Inverted Bottleneck Residual with Self-Attention (IBRwSA) are proposed and trained on the selected datasets. After the training, testing images are employed, and deep features are extracted from the self-attention layer. Deep extracted features are fused using a concatenation approach that is further optimized in the next step using an improved human learning optimization algorithm. The purpose of this algorithm was to improve the classification accuracy and reduce the testing time. The selected features are finally classified using a shallow wide neural network (SWNN) classifier. In addition to that, both trained models are interpreted using an explainable AI technique such as LIME. Based on this approach, it is easy to interpret the inside strength of both models for apple and cucumber leaf disease classification and identification. A detailed experimental process was conducted on both datasets, Apple and Cucumber. On both datasets, the proposed framework obtained an accuracy of 94.8% and 94.9%, respectively. A comparison was also conducted using a few state-of-the-art techniques, and the proposed framework showed improved performance.

Incremental RPN: Hierarchical Region Proposal Network for Apple Leaf Disease Detection in Natural Environments.

Apple leaf diseases can seriously affect apple production and quality, and accurately detecting them can improve the efficiency of disease monitoring. Owing to the complex natural growth environment, apple leaf lesions may be easily confused with background noise, leading to poor performance. In this study, a cascaded Incremental Region Proposal Network (Inc-RPN) is proposed to accurately detect apple leaf diseases in natural environments. The proposed Inc-RPN has a two-layer RPN architecture, where the precursor RPN is leveraged to generate diseased leaf proposals, and the successor RPN focuses on extracting target disease spots based on diseased leaf proposals. In the successor RPN, a low-level feature aggregation module is designed to fully utilize the bridged features and preserve the semantic information of the target disease spots. An incremental module is also leveraged to extract aggregated diseased leaf features and target disease spot features. Finally, a novel position anchor generator is designed to generate anchors based on diseased leaf proposals. The experimental results show that the proposed Inc-RPN performs very well on the FALD_CED and Apple Leaf Disease datasets, showing that it can accurately perform apple leaf disease detection tasks.

Colletotrichum Species Associated with Apple Bitter Rot and Glomerella Leaf Spot: A Comprehensive Overview.

Species of the genus Colletotrichum are among the most important plant pathogens globally, as they are capable of infecting many hosts-apple (Malus spp.) and other fruit and woody plant species-but also vegetable crops, cereals, legumes, and other annual and perennial herbaceous plants. The apple (Malus spp.) is attacked by various species from the genus Colletotrichum, whereby 27 different species from this genus have been described as the causative agents of apple bitter rot (ABR) and 15 as the cause of Glomerella leaf spot (GLS). These species generally belong to one of three species complexes: Colletotrichum acutatum, Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, and Colletotrichum boninense. The largest number of apple pathogens of the genus Colletotrichum belong to the species complex C. acutatum and C. gloeosporioides. However, further data on these species and the interactions between the species complexes of the genus Colletotrichum that cause these two apple diseases is needed for the development of effective control measures, thus ensuring successful and profitable apple cultivation. To contribute to this endeavor, a comprehensive review of the causative agents of ABR and GLS from the genus Colletotrichum is provided. In addition to presenting the species' current names, distribution, economic significance, and the symptoms they cause in apple, their development cycle, epidemiology, and molecular detection strategies are described, with a particular emphasis on control measures.

Deciduous fruit trees and grapevines as alternative crops in Demathophora necatrix (syn. Rosellinia necatrix) infested soils

White root rot, caused by Dematophora necatrix (syn. Rosellinia necatrix), affects deciduous trees. A D. necatrix infection-distribution survey found widespread disease in apple and cherry orchards in northern Israel bordering a Mediterranean forest, although the forest trees were unaffected. Because cherry and apple orchards must be abandoned due to long fungal survival in infested soils, alternative deciduous fruit trees and grapevines were assessed for growth in these D. necatrix-infested orchards. In the field, grapevine rootstocks and the almond–peach rootstock GF-677 were most tolerant to D. necatrix-infested soil. Apple was the most sensitive crop, with the rootstock Hashabi being more tolerant than PI80 or MM104. The Mediterranean forest tree Pistacia atlantica, which can serve as a rootstock for pistachio, was as sensitive as kiwifruit and apple, and persimmon rootstock sensitivity was not different from grapevine. Those results show that beside the above mentioned crops, vineyards can also replace apple orchards in D. necatrix-infested soils and so broadens the list of possible crops for the local farmers in a Mediterranean climate at altitudes above 440 m above sea level. This has also been observed in a commercial 10-year-old vineyard of ‘Shiraz’ grapevines grafted on SO4 rootstock. The almond-peach rootstock GF-677 can also be grown in infested soil, but in commercial orchards requires additional treatment for adequate disease control.

Colletotrichum species causing Glomerella leaf spot and apple bitter rot in the southeastern United States exhibit disparities in relative frequency, morphological phenotype, and QoI sensitivity.

Glomerella leaf spot (GLS), Glomerella fruit rot (GFR) and apple bitter rot (ABR), caused by Colletotrichum spp. are amongst the most devastating apple diseases in the southeastern United States. While several species have been identified as causal pathogens of GLS, GFR, and ABR, their relative frequency and fungicide sensitivity status in the southeastern U.S. is unknown. In total, 381 Colletotrichum isolates were obtained from symptomatic leaves and fruit from 18 conventionally managed apple orchards and two baseline populations in western North Carolina and Georgia in 2016 and 2017. Multilocus DNA sequence analysis revealed that C. chrysophilum was the predominant cause of GLS and GFR, and C. fioriniae was the causal agent of ABR. Baseline and commercial populations of Colletotrichum spp. were evaluated for sensitivity to pyraclostrobin and trifloxystrobin and no statistical differences in sensitivity between the two species were observed for conidial germination. However, EC50 values were significantly lower for C. fioriniae compared to C. chrysophilum for both fungicides regarding mycelial inhibition. Isolates recovered from commercial orchards revealed that 5 populations of C. chrysophilum and 1 population of C. fioriniae had reduced sensitivity to trifloxystrobin, and 1 C. fioriniae population had reduced sensitivity to pyraclostrobin via conidial germination assays. The cytb gene for 27 isolates of C. fioriniae, C. chrysophilum, and C. fructicola with different QoI sensitivities revealed the G143A mutation in a single isolate of C. chrysophilum with insensitivity to both fungicides. Results of these studies suggest that two Colletotrichum spp. predominantly cause GLS and ABR in the southeastern U.S. and that a reduction in sensitivity to some QoI fungicides may be responsible for control failures. This study also provides basis for monitoring shifts in QoI sensitivity in Colletotrichum spp. causing disease on apple in the southeastern U.S.

Online detection of moldy apple core based on diameter and SSC features

Moldy core is a common internal disease in apples, with current visible/near-infrared (Vis/NIR) spectroscopy-based detection methods often suffering from inaccuracies due to variations in fruit diameter and soluble solids content (SSC). To address this issue, an online detection system was developed that integrates spectral corrections for both diameter and SSC information. The spectra were first corrected using a hyperbolic sine function based on fruit diameter, followed by a second correction utilizing the spectral features of SSC through the Variational Mode Decomposition (VMD) algorithm. This two-step correction process effectively mitigated the influence of diameter and SSC variations on the spectral data. A Partial Least Squares Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA) model was subsequently constructed using the corrected spectra and moldy core labels. Compared to the uncorrected model, the improved model exhibited substantial enhancements in accuracy, recall, and precision, achieving 94.44%, 92.59%, and 96.15%, respectively. Additionally, online validation with independent samples demonstrated an accuracy of 88.33%, highlighting the system's stability and robustness for efficient online detection of apple moldy core.

Rapid Identification of Phytotoxins Produced by Glomerella cingulata Using High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry-Based Qualification, Targeted Structural Confirmation and Their Characteristics Investigation.

Glomerella cingulata is a pathogenic fungus that can cause apple Glomerella leaf spot (GLS), a new and destructive apple disease in China. Phytotoxins are important factors closely related to the disease process, but there is still no report on the phytotoxins of G. cingulata. The aim of this study was to rapidly identify the phytotoxins of this pathogen using a strategy of HRMS-based preliminary qualification, followed by targeted structure confirmation and also investigation of phytotoxicity characteristics. First, the crude toxin sample was directly analyzed by the UPLC-HRMS and GC-MS, and the data were processed to screen for possible phytotoxic compounds using MS library and the phytotoxicity-related literature. The reference standards of credible phytotoxic compounds were then subjected to targeted structure validation (signal comparison between standards and compounds in crude toxin via HPLC-DAD, UPLC-MS/MS, and GC-MS), and also the phytotoxicity assay. The results confirmed six phytotoxins produced by G. cingulata, namely 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furancarboxylic acid (HMFCA), 2,5-bis(hydroxymethyl)furan (BHMF), 2-furoic acid (FA), 2,3-butanediol, trans-aconitic acid (TAA), and cis-aconitic acid (CAA). Of these, HMFCA and TAA exhibited greater phytotoxicity. Main characteristics: All of them were non-host-selective toxins, and toxins were synergistically phytotoxic to the host when mixed. BHMF, HMFCA, FA, TAA, and CAA could be commonly produced by all tested strains, and their phytotoxicity can be significantly inhibited or even eliminated at high temperatures or high pH. The elucidation of the phytotoxins of G. cingulata in this work could provide information on the pathogenesis and control of apple GLS.

Multi-Source Image Fusion Based Regional Classification Method for Apple Diseases and Pests

Efficient diagnosis of apple diseases and pests is crucial to the healthy development of the apple industry. However, the existing single-source image-based classification methods have limitations due to the constraints of single-source input image information, resulting in low classification accuracy and poor stability. Therefore, a classification method for apple disease and pest areas based on multi-source image fusion is proposed in this paper. Firstly, RGB images and multispectral images are obtained using drones to construct an apple diseases and pests canopy multi-source image dataset. Secondly, a vegetation index selection method based on saliency attention is proposed, which uses a multi-label ReliefF feature selection algorithm to obtain the importance scores of vegetation indices, enabling the automatic selection of vegetation indices. Finally, an apple disease and pest area multi-label classification model named AMMFNet is constructed, which effectively combines the advantages of RGB and multispectral multi-source images, performs data-level fusion of multi-source image data, and combines channel attention mechanisms to exploit the complementary aspects between multi-source data. The experimental results demonstrated that the proposed AMMFNet achieves a significant subset accuracy of 92.92%, a sample accuracy of 85.43%, and an F1 value of 86.21% on the apple disease and pest multi-source image dataset, representing improvements of 8.93% and 10.9% compared to prediction methods using only RGB or multispectral images. The experimental results also proved that the proposed method can provide technical support for the coarse-grained positioning of diseases and pests in apple orchards and has good application potential in the apple planting industry.

Identification of streptomycin-resistant Erwinia amylovora in Iowa.

Erwinia amylovora is a bacterial pathogen that causes fire blight, an important disease in apples and pears. Applying the antibiotic streptomycin during the phenological bloom stage is considered the most effective management tactic for fire blight. Though streptomycin-resistant (SmR) E. amylovora populations have emerged in major U.S. apple-producing regions, antibiotic resistance data for medium to small-sized apple-producing regions like the Midwest is still lacking. This short communication collected symptomatic fire blight samples from Iowa apple orchards during 2022 and 2023, where recent fire blight outbreaks persisted despite streptomycin use. Among E. amylovora isolates from seven counties in central and eastern Iowa, around 90% of them were SmR. All SmR isolates exhibited a single base pair mutation in codon 43 of the rpsL gene, conferring resistance to streptomycin levels exceeding 1,000 μg/mL. Through clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR) analysis, we characterized two E. amylovora genotypes unique to our region. Whole genome sequencing of one representative SmR isolate, IA01, confirmed its CRISPR genotype and subsequent phylogenetic analysis suggested that IA01 is genetically similar to Michigan isolates and distinct from those in eastern and western regions of North America. Furthermore, the disease-causing ability of IA01 was comparable to that of the highly virulent Ea110 strain, a streptomycin sensitive strain isolated from Michigan, in immature pears. Overall, this study underscores the urgent need for regional strategies to address antibiotic resistance and provide insights into its genetic basis and geographic distribution which are crucial for sustainable orchard management.

Non-Destructive Detection Method of Apple Watercore: Optimization Using Optical Property Parameter Inversion and MobileNetV3

Current methods for detecting apple watercore are expensive and potentially damaging to the fruit. To determine whether different batches of apples are suitable for long-term storage or long-distance transportation, and to classify the apples according to quality level to enhance the economic benefits of the apple industry, it is essential to conduct non-destructive testing for watercore. This study proposes an innovative detection method based on optical parameter inversion and the MobileNetV3 model. Initially, a three-layer plate model of apples was constructed using the Monte Carlo method to simulate the movement of photons inside the apple, generating a simulated brightness map of photons on the apple’s surface. This map was then used to train the MobileNetV3 network with dilated convolution, resulting in a pre-trained model. Through transfer learning, this model was applied to measured spectral data to detect the presence of watercore. Comparative experiments were conducted to determine the optimal transfer strategy for the frozen layers, achieving model accuracy rates of 99.13%, 97.60%, and 95.32% for two, three, and four classifications, respectively. Furthermore, the model parameters were low at 7.52 M. Test results of this study confirmed the effectiveness and lightweight characteristics of the method that combines optical property parameter inversion, the DC-MobileNetV3 model, and transfer learning for detecting apple watercore. This model provides technical support to detect watercore and other internal diseases in apples.

First report of Erwinia pyrifoliae causing flower blight and fruit rot on greenhouse-grown Fragaria × ananassa in the United States.

Erwinia pyrifoliae causes disease of pear (Pyrus spp.), apple (Malus spp.), and strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) (Wenneker and Bergsma-Vlami 2015), which are economically important commodities in the US. Disease symptoms on pear and apple are indistinguishable from those caused by the non-quarantine fire blight pathogen, E. amylovora (Kim et al. 1999), which also causes disease on strawberries (Atanasova et al. 2005). Samples of greenhouse-grown strawberry 'Albion' from Ohio were submitted to the Purdue Plant and Pest Diagnostic Lab in December 2023. Fruits were stunted with brown lesions, while sepals and pedicels had brown-black water-soaked lesions. Cut fruit exuded bacterial ooze from the main vascular bundle. Bacterial streaming was observed microscopically from symptomatic tissue which tested positive with the E. amylovora ImmunoStrip® (Agdia Inc., Elkhart, IN); reported by the manufacturer to cross-react with E. pyrifoliae. Isolation from symptomatic tissue produced pure cultures on sucrose peptone agar and Kings medium B after incubation at 27°C for 48 hr, and colonies appeared circular and white/opaque. Crude DNA extractions were prepared by boiling colony suspensions in Tris-EDTA buffer. Two independent real-time PCR tests specific for E. pyrifoliae (Lehman et al. 2008; Yasuhara-Bell et al. 2024) produced positive results. Conventional PCR using an E. pyrifoliae-specific primer set targeting a divergent region between pstS and glmS genes (Wensing et al. 2011) also produced positive results. The amplicon was Sanger-sequenced and deposited into NCBI GenBank (Accession PP757383). BLASTn analysis using the Nucleotide collection and Whole-genome shotgun contigs revealed top matches (100% query coverage; 97.5% identity to type strain DSM 12163) with E. pyrifoliae only; next closest match was E. amylovora (53% query coverage). To confirm Koch's postulates, immature fruit of six healthy strawberry 'Albion' plants were wounded with a sterile pipette tip and then submersed in a bacterial suspension in sterile deionized water (DI H2O) (3.1×107 cells/ml). Fruit of six additional plants were mock inoculated using sterile DI H2O. Plants were placed in plastic bags for 48 hr at room temperature with a 12-hr photoperiod. Symptoms were first observed on inoculated plants 1.5 days post-inoculation (DPI). Brown discoloration was observed within fruit and as spreading lesions on fruit pedicels by 4 DPI; mock-inoculated plants remained asymptomatic. Bacterial streaming from symptomatic tissue allowed successful re-isolation of the bacterium. Molecular testing confirmed isolates to be E. pyrifoliae, thus completing Koch's postulates. Following initial confirmation, additional samples of infected strawberry ('Albion' and 'GB96') from the same greenhouse were confirmed positive for E. pyrifoliae by molecular testing and sequencing. To our knowledge this is the first time Erwinia pyrifoliae was detected in the US. There are many known pathways of introduction from Asia and Europe; however, pstS-glmS sequence comparison with strawberry isolates from the Netherlands (sequences provided by M.J.C. Pel) suggests this US strawberry strain is unique, but most closely related to Japanese strains (98.5% identity). Potential origin of this strain is unknown, but comparative genomics studies to investigate relatedness among strains are planned.

Transforming Apple Disease Detection with Advanced Deep Learning: A Hybrid Approach Using Mobilenetv3 Small and Res MLP

The identification of plant diseases through image analysis is crucial in precision agriculture. Traditional methods rely on extensive manual inspection, which is time-consuming and prone to error. Deep learning approaches, particularly convolutional neural networks (CNNs), offer a promising solution for automating this process. This research focuses on preprocessing, augmenting, and analyzing image data to build a robust model capable of distinguishing between healthy and diseased apple leaves. The proposed hybrid model combines MobileNetV3Small and Res MLP architectures, achieving a balance between accuracy and computational efficiency. The novelty of this research lies in the integration of advanced preprocessing techniques and a hybrid deep learning model specifically designed for apple disease detection.

Diplodia bulgarica, the cause of canker disease in apple (Malus × domestica) in Türkiye

The cultivated apple (Malus × domestica) is one of Türkiye’s most important economic crops. Over the growing seasons of 2020–2022, typical symptoms of branch cankers and scaling-off of the bark on apple trees were observed in the Eğirdir district of Isparta province. Botryosphaeriaceae fungi were consistently isolated from symptomatic branches. The fungal pathogen was identified as Diplodia bulgarica based on cultural and morphological characteristics and ITS region of DNA sequence data comparisons. Pathogenicity tests were performed on detached shoots by inoculating them with mycelial plugs. Diplodia bulgarica isolates caused necrotic lesions on Scarlet Spur apple detached shoots. To aid in the development of control strategies for this fungus, nine fungicides were examined in vitro for their antifungal effects against the pathogen at different concentrations. Chlorothalonil, tebuconazole, thiophanate-methyl, and fluazinam were the most efficient fungicides, with EC50 values were <1.0 µg/mL.

Synthesis of aspartic acid and tyrosine by the fire blight pathogen Erwinia amylovora is not required for proliferation on apple flower stigmas or virulence in fruitlets.

The Gram-negative bacterium Erwinia amylovora (Ea) is the causal agent of fire blight, a devastating disease of apples and pears. In the fire blight disease cycle, Ea grows in different plant tissues, each presenting a distinct nutrient environment. Here, we investigate the ability of aspartate and tyrosine double auxotroph Ea lines to proliferate on apple flower stigma surfaces representing the epiphytic growth stage of Ea and in developing fruitlets representing one endophytic growth stage of Ea. Heterologous complementation studies in an Escherichia coli aspartate and tyrosine auxotroph verify that Ea aspartate aminotransferase (AspC) and tyrosine aminotransferase (TyrB) act as aspartate and tyrosine amino transferases. Growth analysis reveals that Ea aspC tyrB mutants multiply to near-wild-type levels on apple flower stigmas and immature fruitlets. Ea AspC and TyrB are reciprocally complementing for aspartate and tyrosine synthesis in Ec and in Ea. Ea aspC and tyrB mutants obtain sufficient aspartate and tyrosine to support multiplication on stigma surfaces and virulence in immature fruitlets.