www.czu.cz ; www.usab-tm.ro ; www.raupp.info

Thiamine, or Vitamin B1, is a potent compound useful in maintaining the
immune system of humans. Spraying it on plants, however, can also contribute
to the plant immune system, and it is this new property of thiamine that
Il-Pyung Ahn and colleagues from the Seoul National University explore in
?Vitamin B1 Functions as an Activator of Plant Disease Resistance.? Their
findings appear in this month?s Plant Physiology, July 2005.

Researchers found that thiamine induces systemic acquired resistance (SAR)
in plants, which enhances resistance to many, but not all fungal, bacterial,
and viral pathogens. By spraying thiamine on rice, Arabidopsis, and
cucumber, among other crops, and inoculating the plants with the pathogens,
the researchers found that the incidence of viral and bacterial infections
amongst the plants was much lower. For instance, thiamine treatment of the
rice cultivar Nakdong also induced resistance to the compatible bacterial
leaf blight pathogen Xanthomonas oryzae pv oryzae strain.

The effect of thiamine spraying lasted for as long as 15 days for the
plants. These findings provide a new way by which scientists could develop
strategies for the control of plant diseases.

[www.isaaa.org]

------------------------------------------
Posted to Phorum via PhorumMail