Ezzat, Gaballa Kassem Ahmed

Holb, Imre

Nyéki, József

Szabó, Zoltán

International Journal of Horticultural Science

English

University of Debrecen Electronic Archive

 International Journal of Horticultural Science 2013, 19 (3–4): 37–39.
Agroinform Publishing House, Budapest, Printed in Hungary
ISSN 1585-0404
Introduction
Brown rot, caused by Monilinia laxa (Aderhold 
&Ruhland) is a devastating disease of apricot (Prunus 
armeniaca L.). The disease is endemic in Europe and causes 
epidemics in most stone fruit orchards (Wormald, 1954; 
Byrde & Willets, 1977; Batra, 1991; Holb, 2004). Brown 
rot has been resulting in blossom blight in rainy springs and 
in fruit rot in rainy summers in Hungarian apricot orchards. 
Postharvest fungal pathogens result in major losses of fruits 
and vegetables and can be controlled effectively by synthetic 
chemical fungicides
Many reports have shown that induced disease resistance 
in plants by biotic and abiotic elicitors is a very effective 
method for restricting the spread of fungal infection (Droby et 
al., 2002; Qin et al., 2003). Resistance of plants to pathogens 
is based on both constitutive defense mechanisms such as 
pre-existing antimicrobial compounds and inducible defense 
mechanisms. Induced disease resistance in plants by biotic or 
abiotic treatments is a very attractive strategy for controlling 
diseases 
This experiment aimed to study the effect of salicylic acid 
on the in vitro growth of M. laxa.
Materials and methods
Isolation of fungi
M. laxa were isolated from decayed plum fruit. The fungi 
were maintained on PDA at 4 oC. Spores of M. laxa were 
obtained from 2-week-old cultures incubated at 25 oC by 
fl ooding the cultures with sterile distilled water containing 
0.05% (v/v) Tween 80. The suspensions of spores were 
fi ltered through four layers of sterilized cheese cloth. The 
concentrations of spores were adjusted to (1 × 10-3spores ml-1) 
with the aid of a haemocytometer
Mycelial growth
The effects of Salicylic acid on mycelial growth were 
assayed by the method of Yao & Tian (2005a). Salicylic acid 
solution mixed with molten PDA-agar to give a total volume 
of 20mL per petri plate (diameter: 90mm). S.A concentration 
was 2 Mm in the PDA-agar. After the agar had solidifi ed, 
5mm disks of M. laxa were placed in the center of each petri 
plate. Plates were incubated at 20 oC.Colony diameter was 
determined 24, 48 and 72h after inoculation. Each treatment 
was replicated three times and the experiment was repeated 
twice. Mycelial growth of M. laxa on PDA was expressed 
as growth rate, which was calculated according to the 
following formula. Growth rate (%) = (colony diameter after 
inoculation−5mm)/5mm ×100.
Data analysis
Experiments were performed using a completely 
randomized design. All statically analyzes were performed 
with SPSS program. The data were analyzed by one-way 
analysis of variance (ANOVA). Means separation was 
performed by Duncan’s multiple range tests. Differences at 
p<0.05 were considered as signifi cant. 
Preliminary results on salicylic acid treatment 
on brown rot caused by Monilinia laxa on Jumbo Cot fruit, 
Prunus armeniaca L.
Ezzat, A.1,2, Szabó, Z.1, Nyéki J.1 & Holb, I.J.1
1 Institute of Horticulture, University of Debrecen, H-4015 P. O Box. 36. Debrecen, Hungary
2 Horticulture Department. Faculty of Agriculture. University of Kafelelsehikh, Egypt
Summary: The effect of salicylic acid on reducing brown rot caused by Monilinia laxa infection in postharvest apricot fruit Prunus armeniaca 
L. Freshly harvest Jumpo Cot fruit were treated with water as control treatment and other group treated with salicylic acid 2 Mm as induced 
resistance treatment, Fruits were infected by M. laxa (1 × 10-3spores ml-1) and incubated at 25 oC for 2, 4 and 6 days. Treatment fruits 
with salicylic acid resulted in direct effect on mycelial growth as in the salicylic acid treatment the growth reached to 45% after 6 days of 
incubation while in the control treatment it reached to 100%. 
Key words: apricot fruit, salicylic acid, brown rot, Monilinia laxa, disease resistance
8_Ezzat_Salicylic.indd   37 1/29/14   10:29 AM
Ezzat, A., Szabó, Z., Nyéki J. & Holb, I.J.38
Results and discussion
Effect of salicylic acid treatment on mycelial 
growth of Monilinia laxa in vitro
Salicylic acid treatment markedly reduced 
the growth rate of M. laxa in vitro fi gure (1). 
Growth rate of M. laxa in PDA media without 
salicylic acid rose to around 50% during 2 days 
after incubation at 25 oC while the rate rose to 
about 20% in PDA media inoculate with 2Mm 
salicylic acid with signifi cantly differences 
(p<0.05). The growth rate of M. laxa in 
control treatment increased dramatically after 
4 days and 6 days to around 90% and 140%, 
respectively. In case of salicylic acid treatment, 
the rate of mycelial growth ranged between 
approximately 25% to 45% after 4 days and 6 days, 
respectively with signifi cant difference in comparison to 
control treatment (p<0.05).
Inducing resistance is another important strategy for 
reducing the diseases in plant as well as in harvested fruit and 
vegetables, which is attractive because the induced disease 
resistance utilizes the plant’s own defense mechanisms and is 
either far less toxic than fungicides or nontoxic (Wilson et al., 
1994; Kuć, 2001; Terry and Joyce, 2004; Walters et al., 2005; 
Elmer and Reglinski, 2006). For example, salicylic acid 
(SA), a best known elicitor, can induce local and systemic 
resistance in many plant tissues (Rojo et al., 2003; Garcia-
Brugger et al., 2006) including pear fruit (Cao et al., 2006; 
Tian et al., 2006).
In this study, found that salicylic acid treatment could 
signifi cantly reduce M. laxa growth in vivo as Cao et 
al. (2008) reported in case of MeJA in loquat fruit. It is 
postulated that the control of the disease is directly because 
of the inhibitory effect of MeJA on pathogen growth, and 
indirectly because of the induced disease resistance triggered 
by enhanced H2O2 levels. Also these results were in the same 
way with Yao et al. (2005b), they reported that salicylic acid 
with a concentration of 2mM showed direct fungitoxicity 
on M. fructicola and signifi cantly inhibited mycelial growth 
and spore germination of the pathogen in vitro. The results 
reported that the Salicylic acid has direct effect on reducing 
the lesion diameter and disease incidence with signifi cantly 
differences (p<0.05) and this fi nding is too clear in case of 
unwounding treatment these results are in the same trend 
like the fi nding of Yao et al. (2005ab) they reported that pre-
harvest treatments with 2mM salicylic acid (SA) and 0.2mM 
methyl jasmonate (MeJA) signifi cantly reduced lesion 
diameters on sweet cherry fruit caused by M. fructicola 
compared with control post-harvest treatments.
Acknowledgements
This research was supported partly by a grant of the 
Hungarian Scientifi c Research Fund (K78399 and OTKA 
K108333) and by the European Union and the State of 
Hungary, co-fi nanced by the European Social Fund in the 
frameworkof TÁMOP-4.2.4.A/ 2-11/1-2012-0001 ‘National 
Excellence Program’ under the project number: A2-SZJ-
TOK-13-0061.
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Figure 1. Effect of salicylic acid on mycelial growth of Monilinia laxa in vitro. 
Data are expressed as the mean of triplicate assays. Vertical bars represent the standard errors 
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Preliminary results on salicylic acid treatment on brown rot caused by Monilinia laxa on Jumbo Cot fruit, Prunus armeniaca L

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Preliminary results on salicylic acid treatment on brown rot caused by Monilinia laxa on Jumbo Cot fruit, Prunus armeniaca L

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