Unravelling the synergistic interaction of Thrips tabaci and newly recorded, Thrips parvispinus with Alternaria porri (Ellis.) Cif., inciting onion purple blotch

• Published in: Frontiers in microbiology 2024-03, Vol.15, p.1321921-1321921
• Main Authors: Saini, Shubham, Raj, Kushal, Saini, Anil Kumar, Kumar, Rakesh, Saini, Ankit, Khan, Aslam, Kumar, Pankaj, Devi, Geeta, Bhambhu, Mukul Kumar, McKenzie, Cindy L, Lal, Makhan, Wati, Leela
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Alternaria porri; injury; Microbiology; onion; thrips; Thrips parvispinus; Thrips tabaci
• ISSN: 1664-302X; 1664-302X
• DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1321921

Onion purple blotch is the most indispensable foliar disease of crop and has become a major concern for farmers and research fraternity. An attempt to investigate the role of injury in parasitism by indicated that disease incidence and severity enhance considerably with injury. Thrips injured plants inoculated with presented 100% incidence and 52-72% severity while mechanically injured plants inoculated with showed 60-70% incidence and 28-34% severity. The uninjured plants showed considerably less disease incidence (30-40%) and severity (10-16%). Injured inoculated plants presented reduced leaf length and leaf area while the leaf diameter remained unaffected. The lesion number, lesion length and size was substantially enhanced with concomitant infestation of pest and pathogen. injury led to more pronounced symptoms of purple blotch compared to injury. There was substantial decrease in photosynthetic rate and chlorophyll content with stress imposed on plant whilst the relative stress injury was enhanced. The induction of injury and inoculation of had an impact on the concentration of total phenolics, total soluble sugars, total proteins and hydrogen peroxide in onion leaves. combined with injury caused a more pronounced decrease in total soluble sugars and total protein content while enhancement in total phenolics and hydrogen peroxide content compared to uninjured plants. The dynamic nature of morpho-physiological and biochemical changes owing to stress conditions imposed on onion plant adds an extra layer of complexity in understanding the onion plant physiology and their ability to work out in response to challenging environment conditions.