International Journal of Molecular Sciences Article Sweet Immunity: The Effect of Exogenous Fructans on the Susceptibility of Apple (Malus × domestica Borkh.) to Venturia inaequalis Anze Svara 1 , Łukasz Paweł Tarkowski 2, Henry Christopher Janse van Rensburg 3 , Evelien Deleye 1 , Jarl Vaerten 1, Nico De Storme 1, Wannes Keulemans 1 and Wim Van den Ende 3,* 1 Laboratory for Fruit Breeding and Biotechnology, Division of Crop Biotechnics, KU Leuven, 3001 Leuven, Belgium;
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[email protected] (W.K.) 2 Seed Metabolism and Stress Team, INRAE Angers, Institut de Recherche en Horticulture et Semences, Bâtiment A, CEDEX, 49071 Beaucouzé, France;
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[email protected]; Tel.: +32-16321945 Received: 9 July 2020; Accepted: 11 August 2020; Published: 16 August 2020 Abstract: There is an urgent need for novel, efficient and environmentally friendly strategies to control apple scab (Venturia inaequalis), for the purpose of reducing overall pesticide use. Fructans are recently emerging as promising “priming” compounds, standing out for their safety and low production costs. The objective of this work was to test a fructan-triggered defense in the leaves of apple seedlings. It was demonstrated that exogenous leaf spraying can reduce the development of apple scab disease symptoms. When evaluated macroscopically and by V. inaequalis-specific qPCR, levan-treated leaves showed a significant reduction of sporulation and V.