Plant Pathology
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PLANT PATHOLOGY Crop Diseases and their Management Professor Y.S.Ahlawat Division of Plant Pathology Indian Agricultural Research Institute New Delhi-110012 (30-04- 2007) CONTENTS Wheat Diseases Rice Diseases Maize Diseases Sorghum Diseases Bajra Diseases Sugarcane Diseases Groundnut Diseases Sunflower Diseases Mustard Diseases Pigeonpea Diseases Soybean Diseases Gram Diseases Lentil Diseases Cotton Diseases Potato Diseases Tomato Diseases Brinjal Diseases Chilli Diseases Vegetable Crucifer Diseases Vegetable Cucurbit Diseases Pea Diseases Bean Diseases Mango Diseases Apple Diseases Papaya Diseases Citrus Diseases Peach and Pear Diseases Guava Diseases Grape Diseases Sapota Diseases Ber Diseases Custard Apple Diseases Coconut Palm Diseases Management of Plant Diseases Keywords Crop disease, symptom, pathogen, control, disease cycle, economic importance Wheat Diseases 1. Rusts of Wheat The rusts of wheat belong to genus Puccinia, family Pucciniaceae, order Uredinales and class Basidiomycotina. Wheat suffers from three rust diseases namely stem, leaf and stripe rust. Stem rust caused by P. graminis, leaf rust caused by P. recondita but currently P. triticina was suggested to be the preferred name, yellow rust of wheat is caused by P. glumarum but later changed as P. striiformis. Rust fungi which are morphologically identical but attack different host genes are known as special forms (formae specialis) for example, P. graminis on wheat is Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici, P. recondita as Puccinia recondita f. sp. graminis and P. striiformis as Puccinia recondita f. sp. graminis. In each special form of these rusts are several pathogenic (physiological) races which can be detected on different varieties of the same species by inoculation and these varieties are known as differential hosts. The rust fungi, being an obligate pathogen, must be cultured on living host plants under controlled condition in a glasshouse. Black and brown rust pathogens complete their life cycle on two hosts. For P. graminis tritici, wheat is the primary host and barberis is the secondary or alternate host. P. graminis tritici completing their life cycle on two hosts is known as heteroecious rust. This rust pathogen produces five different stages/spores to complete the sexual cycle and the stages are: pycnial, aecial, uredial, telial and basidial. Urediospores and teliospores are formed on wheat and basidiospores, pycniospores and aeciospores on alternate host (barberis). Such rusts are known as macrocyclic or long cycled rusts. 2. Black or Stem Rust of Wheat Stem rust of wheat is worldwide in its distribution and affects wheat wherever it is grown. It caused enormous losses to wheat production all over the world. This disease has caused greater damage than any other disease of wheat crop. In dry areas, the disease developed in epiphytotic form during wet season. Losses were higher in spring wheat areas of North America than winter wheat areas because of relatively high summer precipitation in spring wheat areas and the the plants exposed to longer period of favourable summer conditions. Now stem rust is largely under control worldwide. Symptoms: The stem rust pathogen attacks all the above ground parts. In addition to wheat, this pathogen also infects its alternate host barberis (Barberis vulgaris). The black or brown colored elliptical blisters or pustules develop on upper and lower surfaces of leaves, stem and leaf sheaths of wheat generally parallel to their long axis and known as uredia (Fig.1a). (a)Stem Rust (b)Leaf Rust (c)Stripe Rust (Puccinia (P. recondita) (P. striiformis) graminis tritici) Fig 1. Three rusts of wheat 2 These uredia are 1-3 mm wide and upto 10 mm long in size. The epidermis of the infected plants is ruptured releasing a powdery mass of brick red coloured uredospores. Later in the season these pustules turn black due to abundant production of shiny black teliospores alongwith the uredospores but finally the uredia are transformed into black colored telia forming teliospores. All the affected parts are ultimately covered with uredia or telia filled with either urediospores or teliospores or both. Stem rust is favoured by humid conditions and warmer temperatures of 15 to 35 C. Uredia contain upto 10000 urediospores. The basidiospores infect barberis, the alternate host. On barberis, symptoms are developed on affected leaves as yellowish to orange colored spots. Later on the upperside of the leaves appear minute black colored bodies known as spermagonia or pycnia having nector. Horn- like or cup shaped aecia appear below pycnia or sometimes next to them. The host tissue swollen in and around the infection and whitish aecial wall protrudes at the margin of aecia. Aeciospores can also be a source of inoculum of wheat stem rust and can infect wheat similar to uredospores wherever alternate host is found. Pathogen: Puccina graminis tritici (pers.) Erikss. Henri = Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici is the causal pathogen. Disease Cycle: Wheat, barley, triticale and a few related species are the primary hosts for P. graminis f. sp. Tritici .The pycnia and aecia develop on alternate hosts, Barberis vulgaris L. and Mahonia spp. wherever they are found.The pathogen completes its life cycle on two hosts, wheat and barberis being its heteroceous nature. The uredo and teleuto stages are found on wheat, barley or some grasses and pycnial and aecial stages on alternate hosts. The life cycle is given in (Fig 1a-1). Fig 1a-1. Life and disease cycle of Puccinia graminis tritici (Source: Courtesy of V. Brewater) 3 The uredospores are brown, thick walled with spines and measure 25-30 X 17-20 µm. They germinate through the germ tube when come in contact to a proper host. The germ tube produces appressoria which in turn develop the infection peg. The infection pegs enter the host through stomata and finally hyphal strands develop and hyphae spread intercellularly. When fully established, the uredosori are developed, which erupt releasing the uredospores. Uredospores spread from field to field of wheat through winds. At late in the season the telia are produced in mature uredial sori. The teliospres are dark brown, two celled and wedge shaped with thick walls measuring 40 to 60µm x 18 to 22µm. Teliospores are dicaryotic (n = n) and remain with the straw after harvesting where karyogamy occurs and the teliospores become diploid (2n). The teliospores germinate after a long resting period and exposer to freezing temperature. They undergo meosis producing a four celled basidium. Each cell produces a single haploid basidiospore (1n) which is hyline and travel through wind and infects barberis bush resulting the production of a pycnium (1n). The picnium produces receptive hyphae and picniospores of a single mating type (+ or -) that serves as female and male gametes of the fungus. Pycniospores of one mating type must be transferred to the receptive hyphae of the opposite mating type to initiate aecia and aeciospores development which is normally done by insects or splashing rains. Aeciospores are dicaryotic (n+n) and are produced in aecia on the lower surface of barberis leaves below the pycnia. Aeciospores are hydroscopically released from the aecia, travel by wind and infect wheat resulting in the production of dicaryotic uredia with uredospores. The asexual stage is repeated several times during the season. However, the sexual stage is not found in India because of nonavailability of proper alternate host (s). In India, disease develops by air borne uredospores which needs free moisture and temperature above 20 C for spread. The pathogen perpetuates in Nilgiri hills during off season and becomes air borne. If peninsular and central India has rainfall during November then epidemics are severe. Late infection causes less damage in north India. Control: Control of wheat stem rust has been achieved through the development of rust resistant varieties. Genetic analysis of five bread wheat cvs. Hd 2135, HD 2160, HD 2189, HD 2285 and Vaishali with four selected pathotypes 21, 21A-2, 40-1 and 117A of Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici showed the presence of three dominant and one recessive gene for resistance in HD 2135, two dominant and one recessive genes in HD 2160, four dominant genes in HD 2189, three dominant and two complementry recessive genes in HD 2285 and five dominant genes in Vaishali. Test of allelism confirmed the presence of Sr 8a and Sr 30 in HD 2135 and HD 2160; Sr 8a in HD 2189; Sr5 in HD 2285 and Sr5 and Sr8a in Vaishali. World wide resistance genes of stem rust (Sr genes) have been identified from Triticum and related genera and incorporated in agronomically superior cultivars. The cultivation of slow rusting varieties will be useful for certain regions. Therefore, commercial wheat varieties were evaluated for slow rusting phenomenon. Wheat cvs. HPW 42, Hs 207, and GW 190 showed slow rusting to both stem and leaf rusts. Among durum wheat cvs. HI 8316, HI 8381 and HD 4633 are slow ruster to stem rust. Eradication of alternate host (barberis) from countries where it plays role in rust recurrence helped in controlling black rust. In India, the inoculum survives on self sown wheat at hills. Therefore, resistant varieties should be grown in hills as eradication of self sown plants is practically impossible. Use of early maturing varieties and early sowing is also helpful to 4 avoid damage due to black rust since this rust appears late in the season. Excessive irrigation increases the susceptibility to uredospores. Therefore, irrigation schedules recommended for a variety or cultivar must be followed. Seedling and adult plant resistance and use of slow rusting varieties/cultivars are another area of interest to minimize the losses caused by stem rust. Slow rusting means the ability of a cultivar to retard rust development. This phenomenon is governed by genes. Several Sr genes are associated with slow rusting on wheat by stem rust pathogen. Single foliar spray of new systemic fungicides such as Bayleton, Diniconazol can control stem rust.