Management of Plant Disease by Chemicals

1. Fungicides
Most important
2. Viricides (no specialized chemicals)
Interfere with infection (milk, oil)
Interfere with replication (not commercial)
Reduce symptom expression (hormones)
3. Bactericides
Copper-containing compounds
Antibiotics, compound produced by microbes
4. Nematicides
Broad-spectrum biocides
Disinfectants (bleach, Greeshield[TM])
Fumigants, (Methyl Bromide, Vapam(TM) Basamid(TM)

History of fungicides
Inorganic sulfur & cpds (1800s)
Heavy metal compounds (1880s)
Organic protectants (1930s - 40s)
Organic systemics (late 1960s)
Anti-pathogenesis cpds (1980s, few)
Plant defense activators (21st century)

Fungicide Use
2%

9%
28%
Japan
N&S America
Europe
Rest of World
Rest of Asia

40%
21%

7%
10%

15%

17%
27%
14%
10%

Grapes
Tree Fruits
Nuts
Stone Fruits
Vegetables
Potatoes
Tomatoes

Types of Fungicides
1. Sterilants and fumigants
-wide range of activity but generally not applied to growing
-plants
- eradicate pathogens and pests

-multisite inhibitors

2. Protectants

- most are not systemic

- require repeated application
- new protectant strobilurins and quinolines move as
vapor within the crop and accumulate in the wax layer of new
leaves as they emerge
- largest use worldwide

3. Eradicants
- applied to either seed or growing crops, these are absorbed
and move upwards in the xylem
- pathogen growth is arrested

- usually act at one biochemical target site

Selective toxicity
Kill or inhibit the pathogen
Kill: fungicide

Inhibit: fungistat (very common)

without injuring the plant

Fungi related to plants? Or
animals?

Basis of Selective toxicity

-Differential exposure of cell contents

-Biochemical specificity

Fungicide categories
1. Protectant (surface)
2. Penetrant (surface/subsurface)

3. Systemic (translocated)

Ease of control
Hardest
cankers, vascular wilts

Easiest
Leaf spots and blights,
mildews, rusts
(preventing spread)

Infection Time-line versus( Fungicide Application) Time-line.

1. Infection (Preventative)
2. Incubation time (Curative)
3. Visible symptoms (Eradicative)

4. Sporulation (Antisporulant)

Types of Chemicals used for Plant disease control

1. Copper Compounds
- Bordeaux mixture (Copper sulfate + lime)

-widely used but can cause burning of leaves or

russeting of fruit
2. Inorganic Sulfur Compounds
Sulfur oldest fungicide known
Three physical forms
1.Dust (dusting equipment, hydrophobic)
2. Wettable sulfur (with detergents, spray)
3. Colloidal sulfur (spray, finest particles, greater
surface area -- need less

-may cause injury in hot temp especially to tomato, melons

and grapes
3. Carbonate Compounds

-sodium bicarbonate, bicarbonate salts of ammonium ,

Potassium and lithium fungicidal to powdery mildew
4. Phosphate and phosphate compounds
KH2PO4 or K2 HPO4 effective also against powdery mildew

5. Film-Forming Compounds
-mineral oils, surfactants applied before inoculation
-permeable to gases, nonphytotoxic, biodegradable

Organic Chemicals
Contact Protective Fungicides
1. Organic Sulfur Compounds: Dithiocarbamates
-thiram, ferbam, nabam,maneb, zineb,and mancozeb

2. Quinones
-occur naturally in many plants and produced on
oxidation of plant phenolic compounds
3. Aromatic Compounds
- cpds with benzene rings
PCNB and Terraclor soil fungicide

- Dichloran (DCNA), Chlorothalonil and Biphenyl

4. Heterocyclic Compounds

-heterogenous group which includes captan, iprodione

and vinclozolin

Organic Compounds: Systemic Fungicides

-absorbed through the foliage or roots and are

translocated within the plant through the xylem
-effective as seed treatments, root dips, in-furrow
Treatments or soil drenches, in trees when injected
into the trunks
-many are site-specific thus lead to fungicide resistance
- must be in combination with another broad-spectrum
contact fungicide

1. Acylalanines
- metalaxyl effective against Oomycetes (Ridomil or Apron)
-quite water soluble and is readily translocated from roots
To the aerial parts of the plants
-must be used in combination with broad.spectrum
fungicides

2. Benzimidazoles
- benomyl, carbendazim, thiabendazole and thiophanate
- Interferes with nuclear division of sensitive fungi
-effective against a wide variety of fungi (Benlate) but no
effect on oomycetes, on some dark spored fungi
(Bipolaris, Alternaria)

3. Oxathiins
-first systemic fungicides discovered (carboxin and
oxycarboxin)
-effective against some rust and smut fungi and
Rhizoctonia
-inhibit succinic dehydrogenase for mitochondrial
respiration
4. Organophosphate Fungicides
- fosetyl-Al effective against Oomycetes

- stimulates defense reactions and phytoalexin synthesis

5. Pyrimidines
- diamethirimol, ethirimol and bupirimate
-effective against powdery mildews
6. Triazoles
-triadimefon (Bayleton), triadimenol (Baytan),
propiconazol (Tilt), difenoconazole (Score)
-long protective and curative activity

Antibiotics
Streptomycin Streptomyces griseus
(Agromycin, Phytomycin)
Blasticidin-S, Kasugamycin against rice blast
-binds to bacterial ribosomes, protein synthesis

Tetracyclines (Terramycin,
Aureomycin, Achromycin)
Validomycin rice sheath
blight control
-carbohydrate metabolism

Whats killing the palm trees? National Geographic, July 1988

Before

After

Plant oils and petroleum oils

-used for Sigatoka leaf spot disease

- none are used commercially

The Disadvantages of Crop Protection Chemicals

1. COST
2. REPETITION

3. BREAKDOWN
4. EXPERTISE
5. HAZARDS
6. DESTRUCTION OF BIOLOGICAL CONTROL
7. INCOMPLETE EFFECTIVENESS

Fungicide-resistant fungus biotypes may occur naturally and

may be scattered randomly throughout the population.
All fungi populations in theory can contain varying degrees of
genetic tolerance or susceptibility to each class of chemistry.
Resistance builds up through the survival and spread of initially
rare mutants during exposure to a fungicide.
Pathogens that are polycyclic with short generation times
actually are the first to develop resistance.
Biotypes susceptible to a certain fungicide are called
S-biotypes; biotypes resistant to a fungicide are R-biotypes.
Resistance is more likely to occur when one chemical family
or chemicals with the same mode of action are used
continuously.

As susceptible biotypes are controlled, more resistant or

tolerant biotypes become predominant in the pathogen population.

As the population shifts to resistant biotypes, fungicide control

decreases.
The potential for resistance to develop is also dependent on the
fungicide chemistry and its specific site of action.
Resistance has predominantly been observed in fungicides
with only a single site of action.
On the other hand, only rare instances of resistance have been
reported for compounds with multiple sites of action.

Cross resistance between different fungicides does occur

The reduced response may occur even though the new
fungicide has never been applied to a specific field.

Cross resistance is common between fungicides of the same

chemical family or between families with the same mode of action
Multiple resistance can also occur in pathogen populations.

For example, there are Cercospora beticola isolates that have

resistance to both thiophanate-methyl (a benzimidazole) and
triphenyl tin hydroxide (an organometallic).
This typically occurs when resistance to one fungicide develops
through repeated use.

In some cases, resistance develops gradually with a slow decline

in disease control. An example of this would be with triazole
fungicides because resistance development is a multi-step
process.
Resistance reverts rapidly to a more sensitive condition when
the fungicide concerned is used less and alternated with other
fungicides.
Resistance does not develop at an equal rate for all fungi and
all fungicides.

Factors that influence the development of resistance:

1. Population dynamics
- spontaneous mutations occurring
- resistant popn 1:1 Billion (unsprayed conditions)
- higher proportion surviving a fungicide
- reaches 1:100 or 1:10 becoming evident and detectable
2. Mode of Action
-binding to and inactivating a key enzyme, or as
complex as deregulating life-sustaining processes

-multiple-site and single-site fungicides

- no resistant strains for preventative fungicides because

they affect several processes of the pathogen and too many
gene changes necessary to produce a resistant strain
- resistant popn arise quickly (single site fungicides) by
simple mutation
-some may take many mutations before a fit resistant
population can develop (eg. Triazoles and strobilurins)
3. Level of control
-build up of resistant biotypes enhanced buy more
effective products, application doses or methods
-if fungicide is effective, selection will be rapid, high degree
of selection pressure is placed on the pathogen

- if fungicide is only 80% effective build up will be slower

-selection enhanced by higher frequency of treatment, esp
sequential applications of the same chemistry with no alterations
4. Persistence
-longer residual fungicides let fewer S-biotypes survive,
shifts the population more quickly to R-biotypes that are
resistant
5. Reproduction

-Sexual allows remixing of genetic material and results in

natural variation

- greater likelihood of resistance in sexual fungi

- however , pathogens that produce asexually and
have many generations per year are very capable of
becoming resistant

Resistance to strobilurins first reported in 1998 in

the wheat powdery mildew fungus Erysiphe
(Blumeria) graminis only a few years after the
fungicides were introduced into agriculture
Common mutation to resistance amino acid #143
glycine is replaced by alanine
Zheng et al. 2000 first report of G to A mutation
conferring resistance to strobilurins in a
filamentous fungus lab resistant mutants

Mutations in cytochrome b conferring

strobilurin resistance
codon 143

Cases of resistance to benzimidazole on key pathogens in

economically important crops

Recommendations will generally help prevent resistance:

1. Do not use products in isolation. Alternate or tank mix with
fungicides that have different modes of action and that are both
effective against the target pathogen. Chemical diversity inhibits
the growth of resistant biotypes.
2. Restrict the number of treatments applied per season and apply
only when necessary. This action can reduce selection pressure
on the pathogen population.
3. Maintain the manufacturers recommended rate. Reducing the
rate to sublethal doses may enhance the development of
resistance.
4. Develop an integrated disease management program that
includes cultural and biological control methods as well as the
wise use of fungicides.
5. Use fungicides as a preventive treatment. Do not use curatively.