Researchers at Tsukuba University found that multi-amino acid treatment protected cabbage leaves and oats from bacterial infection through a stomatic response. Plant diseases cause great damage to agriculture every year, but the means used to combat them sometimes create additional problems rather than a solution.

Cabbage varieties ranging from white cabbage to broccoli belong to the Brassicaceae family, which includes other economically important crops. Oats, from the poaceae cereal family, also has nutritional value, the importance of the crop is increasing with the understanding of the benefits of oats for soil health; In addition to grain yield, oats are considered a popular soil cover plant, reducing erosion and enriching the soil with nutrients after biomass incorporation.

The bacterium Pseudomonas cannabine pv. (Pcal) affects both cultures. In oats, it causes bacterial staining, cabbage, burns. Some common treatments include fungicides and copper-containing antibiotics, which are unfortunately losing their effectiveness: resistant strains of Pcal have already been found. Scientists at Tsukuba University decided to create a biological control tool based on amino acid processing.

"Previous studies have shown that several amino acids are capable of inducing resistance to pathogens in plants. However, the use of amino acids to fight bacterial diseases is not well understood. In this study, we sprayed cabbage and oat leaves with amino acids, then inoculated Pcal in two ways: spray and syringe injection. The use of various amino acids reduced the population of bacteria and the symptoms of the disease only in the case of spraying the pathogen, which led to conclusions, says the study's lead author, Professor Yasuhiro Ishiga." The main route of infection of Pcal is through the stomata of the plants", he concludes.

Source: Agrolink