Blight
Blight refers to a specific symptom affecting plants in response to infection by a pathogenic organism.
Description
Blight is a rapid and complete chlorosis, browning, then death of plant tissues such as leaves, branches, twigs, or floral organs.[1] Accordingly, many diseases that primarily exhibit this symptom are called blights. Several notable examples are:
- Late blight of potato, caused by the water mold Phytophthora infestans (Mont.) de Bary, the disease which led to the Great Irish Famine
- Southern corn leaf blight, caused by the fungus Cochliobolus heterostrophus (Drechs.) Drechs, anamorph Bipolaris maydis (Nisikado & Miyake) Shoemaker, incited a severe loss of corn in the United States in 1970.[2]
- Chestnut blight, caused by the fungus Cryphonectria parasitica (Murrill) Barr, has nearly completely eradicated mature American chestnuts in North America.
- Citrus blight, caused by an unknown agent, infects all citrus scions.
- Fire blight of pome fruits, caused by the bacterium Erwinia amylovora (Burrill) Winslow et al., is the most severe disease of pear and also is found in apple and raspberry, among others.
- Bacterial leaf blight of rice, caused by the bacterium Xanthomonas oryzae (Uyeda & Ishiyama) Dowson.[3]
- Early blight of potato and tomato, caused by species of the ubiquitous fungal genus Alternaria
- Leaf blight of the grasses e.g. Ascochyta species[4] and Alternaria triticina that causes blight in wheat[5]
- Bur oak blight, caused by the fungal pathogen Tubakia iowensis.
On leaf tissue, symptoms of blight are the initial appearance of lesions which rapidly engulf surrounding tissue. However, leaf spots may, in advanced stages, expand to kill entire areas of leaf tissue and thus exhibit blight symptoms.
Blights are often named after their causative agent. For example, Colletotrichum blight is named after the fungus Colletotrichum capsici, and Phytophthora blight is named after the water mold Phytophthora parasitica.[6]
Gallery
- Chestnut blight
- Brown felt blight
- Potato late blight
- Fire blight appletree fruit
References
- Agrios, George N. 2005. Plant Pathology. 5th ed, Burlington, MA: Elsevier Academic Press.
- Partridge, J.E. "Southern Corn Leaf Blight." 2003. 8 August 2006. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-07-23. Retrieved 2012-03-02.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- Oda, M., Sekizawa, Y., and Watanabe, T. 1966. "Phenazines as Disinfectants Against Bacterial Leaf Blight of the Rice Plant." Applied Microbiology 14(3):365-367.
- Tisserat, N. "Ascochyta Leaf Blight of Turf". Colorado State University. Retrieved 11 September 2019.
- "Alternaria triticina (leaf blight of wheat)". www.cabi.org. 27 September 2018. Retrieved 11 September 2019.
- Chase, A. R. (1984). "Diseases of Foliage Plants - Revised List 1984". Agricultural Research Center - Apopka, University of Florida. Archived from the original on 30 October 2014.
External links
- Berg A. 1926. Tomato Late Blight and its Relation to Late Blight of Potato.
- Bonn WG, Zwet TVD. Distribution and economic importance of fire blight. Fire blight: the disease and its causative agent, Erwinia amylovora.:37–53.
- Erskine JM. 1973. Characteristics of Erwinia amylovora bacteriophage and its possible role in the epidemiology of fire blight. Canadian Journal of Microbiology; 19(7):837–845.
- Johnson KB, Stockwell VO. 1998. MANAGEMENT OF FIRE BLIGHT: A Case Study in Microbial Ecology. Annual Review of Phytopathology 36:227–248.
- M. N. Schroth, S. V. Thomson, D. C. Hildebrand, W. J. Moller. 1974. Epidemiology and Control of Fire Blight. Annual Review of Phytopathology, 12:1, 389-412.
- Mcmanus PS. 1994. Role of Wind-Driven Rain, Aerosols, and Contaminated Budwood in Incidence and Spatial Pattern of Fire Blight in an Apple Nursery. Plant Disease 78:1059.
- Puławska J, Sobiczewski P. 2011. Phenotypic and genetic diversity of Erwinia amylovora: the causal agent of fire blight. Trees 26:3–12.
- Rico A, Ortiz-Barredo A, Ritter E, Murillo J. 2004. Genetic characterization of Erwinia amylovora strains by amplified fragment length polymorphism. Journal of Applied Microbiology; 96(2):302–310.
- Ritchie DF. 1977. Isolation of Erwinia amylovora Bacteriophage from Aerial Parts of Apple Trees. Phytopathology 77:101.
- Steiner PW. 1996. What We Don’t Know About Fire Blight. Acta Horticulture; (411):3–6.
- Thomas TM. 1992. Severity of Fire Blight on Apple Cultivars and Strains in Michigan. Plant Disease 76:1049.
- Vanneste JL. What is fire blight? Who is Erwinia amylovora? How to control it? Fire blight: the disease and its causative agent, Erwinia amylovora.:1–6.