Basil (Ocimum spp.) is one of the most economically important and widely grown herbs in the world. Basil downy mildew, caused by Peronospora belbahrii, has become an important disease in sweet basil (O. basilicum) production worldwide in the past decade. Global sweet basil production is at significant risk to basil downy mildew because of the lack of genetic resistance and the ability of the pathogen to be distributed on infested seed. Controlling the disease is challenging and consequently many crops have been lost. In the past few years, plant breeding efforts have been made to identify germplasm that can be used to introduce downy mildew resistance genes into commercial sweet basils while ensuring that resistant plants have the correct phenotype, aroma, and tastes needed for market acceptability. Fungicide efficacy studies have been conducted to evaluate current and newly developed conventional and organic fungicides for its management with limited success. This review explores the current efforts and progress being made in understanding basil downy mildew and its control.
Fusarium wilt of basil (FOB), caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. basilici, is an economically damaging disease of field- and greenhouse-grown sweet basil. Growers have observed a resurgence of FOB and susceptibility in FOB-resistant cultivars. Because currently available chemical, biological, and cultural control methods are costly, unsustainable, ineffective, or challenging to implement, new strategies of FOB control are needed. Cold plasma is becoming an increasingly important experimental technology in the food and agricultural industry for pathogen decontamination. To understand the effect of cold plasma treatment on FOB incidence and severity, experiments were conducted by treating FOB mycelium, inoculated sweet basil seedlings, and seeds with various experimental cold plasma treatment devices, all using helium as a feed gas. Initial results indicated that while the cold plasma jet treatment did not result in a significant reduction in mean mycelial growth rate or virulence of the pathogen, direct cold plasma jet treatments on seedlings, as well as a cold plasma dielectric barrier discharge treatment on seeds, did exhibit varying efficacies against FOB. Control of FOB appeared to be strongly dependent on the exposure time to cold plasma. These findings can aid in the standardization of a cold plasma treatment for the commercial basil seed and transplant industry.
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