1 De part ment of Plant Pa thol ogy, Ag ri cul tural Col lege and Re search In sti tute, Tamil Nadu Ag ri cul tural Uni ver sity, Madurai-625 104, Tamil Nadu, In dia 2 De part ment of Phys i cal Sci ences, Ag ri cul tural Col lege and Re search In sti tute, Tamil Nadu Ag ri cul tural Uni ver sity, Madurai-625 104, Tamil Nadu, In dia * Au thor for cor re spon dence
Ab stractTreat ment of to mato leaves with aque ous ex tract (0.5%) of the galls of Quercus infectoria sig nif i cantly re duced in fec tion from sub se quent in oc u la tion with Alternaria solani, the tomato early blight patho gen. When the leaves were chal lenge-in oc u lated with A. solani 3 d af ter ap pli ca tion of Q. infectoria gall ex tract (QIGE), the per cent de fo li a tion de creased from 33.6 to 7.3. Two to three day pre-treat ment with QIGE reduced the per cent de fo li a tion by 77 per cent. The bio chem i cal re sponses of to mato plants to QIGE were also stud ied. In tomato plants treated with QIGE, phe no lic con tent in creased rap idly, reached the max i mum at 2 d af ter treat ment. Phenylalanine am mo nia-lyase (PAL) ac tiv ity in creased sig nif i cantly from 1 d af ter treat ment and the max i mum en zyme ac tiv ity was re corded 2 d af ter treat ment at which pe riod a 3-fold in crease in PAL ac tiv ity was ob served when com pared to the con trol. Peroxidase (PO) ac tiv ity was also sig nif i cantly in creased 1 d af ter treat ment and the max i mum ac tiv ity was reached 2 d af ter treat ment. Peroxidase isozyme anal y sis in di cated that PO-1 was in creased dra mat i cally in to mato leaves 1 d af ter treat ment and main tained at the same level through out the ex per i men tal pe riod of 6 d. When to mato leaves were treated with QIGE, a two-fold in crease in chitinase and β-1,3-glucanase ac tiv i ties was re corded 2 and 3 d re spec tively, af ter treat ment. The enhanced ac tiv i ties of de fense-re lated en zymes and el e vated levels of phenolics in QIGE-treated to mato plants be tween 1 and 3 d af ter treat ment sug gest that these in duced bio chem i cal defenses may be in volved in the sup pres sion of early blight by QIGE.List of ab bre vi a tions: GlcNAc-N-acetyl glu cosamine; QIGE-Quercus infectoria gall ex tract; PAL -phenylalanine am mo nia-lyase; PO -perox idase; PR pro teins-pathogenesis-related pro teins
In tro duc tionPlants have evolved a wide ar ray of bio chem i cal de fenses to com bat the in vad ing patho gens. Some of the bio chem i cal de fense mech a nisms are con stitu tive and ex ist ing in nor mally de vel oped healthy plants. These in clude phenolics, phe no lic glycosides, un sat u rated lac tones, sapo nins, cyanogenic