Natural Fungicides and The Fight to Sustain Global Food Security
Sustaining global food security is becoming an ever-growing problem for society. Not only is food security integral for worldwide socioeconomic development, but it also plays a significant role in progressing equitable healthcare systems in developing nations. Currently, a major hindrance to the global agricultural output is debilitating fungi, which can cause a 12-15% loss of annual crop yield. Natural fungicides, like the plant defensins tested in this experiment, are promising for the future of the agricultural sector, as they promise to be safer and more efficient for application. The efficacy of antifungal plant defensins in varying concentrations (6µm, 12µm, and 24µm solutions) was tested in restricting the spread of Botrytis Cinerea fungi in the leaves of various staple plant species. Fungal exposure was further split into drop-assay inoculation (micro pipetting) and spray inoculation. Following an incubation period after the application of fungi and antifungal solution, resulting fungal lesions were quantified using ImageJ processing software and analyzed using Excel. At the end of the experiment feasibility trial with Wisconsin Fastplants and peas, 5 out of the 6 relative lesion size ratios (area of the lesions from the 6µm, 12µm, and 24µm groups divided by the area of the control leaf lesions) were inconclusive.
Ten separate experiment trials with tomato, strawberry, grape, radish, and Alaskan Pea plants were split up into mock, spore only, 6µm, 12µm, and 24µm groups. These ten trials were further divided so that 5 batches were exposed to fungi via drop inoculation and 5 batches were exposed via spray inoculation. The aforementioned species were chosen due to their known adverse reaction to B. cinerea or rather the necessity for a reaction to be observed. ImageJ data was only gathered for the feasibility trial for this experiment, in which the conclusion was largely inconclusive, as 5 out of the 6 individual trials did not prevent the growth of B. cinerea. In general, all fungal lesions that emerged from this experiment were not as prominent as expected (especially in comparison to earlier iterations of the methodology). Additionally, the only individual trial that proved to be conclusive was with the 6µm antifungal peptide solution applied to the Wisconsin Fastplant leaf. Chemical agents were likely expired at the time of experimentation with the feasibility trial, but further experimentation also provided inconclusive results. Initial suggestions show that the quantity of chemical agents used for additional experimentation was insufficient for the chosen leaf clusters.
Thus, even though the experiment results were inconclusive, certain methodology components can likely be reused in further iterations, while other components need to be reviewed. To quantify that higher peptide concentrations will generally prove more effective in restricting the formation of B. cinerea lesions on leaf clusters, more controlled experimentation is required. The field certainly has a lot of promise though, as further iterations of this methodology will hopefully provide more conclusive and logical results about the true potential of antifungal plant defensins and natural fungicides.
Author: Abhinav Katyal
Reference: Katyal A. The Efficacy of Antifungal Plant Defensins In Containing the Spread of Botrytis Cinerea In Leaf Clusters. 2024.
