title: Using fungi and yeasts to manage vegetable crop diseases.
abstract: Vegetable crops are grown worldwide as a source of nutrients and fiber in the human diet. Fungal plant pathogens can cause devastation in these crops under appropriate environmental conditions. Vegetable producers confronted with the challenges of managing fungal pathogens have the opportunity to use fungi and yeasts as biological control agents. Several commercially available products have shown significant disease reduction through various mechanisms to reduce pathogen development and disease. Production of hydrolytic enzymes and antibiotics, competition for plant nutrients and niche colonization, induction of plant host defense mechanisms, and interference with pathogenicity factors in the pathogen are the most important mechanisms. Biotechnological techniques are becoming increasingly valuable to elucidate the mechanisms of action of fungi and yeasts and provide genetic characterization and molecular markers to monitor the spread of these agents.
authors.affiliation: Center for Environmental Biology, Dept of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada V5A 1S6. punja@sfu.ca
authors.forename: Zamir K
authors.initials: ZK
authors.lastname: Punja
authors.forename: Raj S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Utkhede
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000378:metabolism; D018556:Crops, Agricultural / Q000382:microbiology; D004798:Enzymes / Q000378:metabolism; D005658:Fungi / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D015966:Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal; D007113:Immunity, Innate / Q000502:physiology; D010572:Pest Control, Biological / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D010935:Plant Diseases / Q000382:microbiology*; D014170:Transformation, Genetic; D014675:Vegetables / Q000382:microbiology*; D037521:Virulence Factors / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D004798:Enzymes; D037521:Virulence Factors