PSP1 AND PSP2 BIOPRODUCTS AS ALTERNATIVES TO RED STRIPE MANAGEMENT IN SUGARCANE

TREJO MARÍA FERNANDA; BERTANI, ROMINA P.; CASTAGNARO ATILIO PEDRO; GRELLET BOURNONVILLE CARLOS F.; NOGUERA ALDO SERGIO; WELIN BJORN; CHALFOUN NADIA REGINA; FILIPPONE MARÍA PAULA

Las Talitas

Congreso; XXX Congreso ISSCT 2019; 2019

Sociedad Argentina de Técnicos de Caña de Azúcar

One of the major challenges of the 21st century is the development of a more sustainable agriculture while at the same time significantly increasing crop productivity. One promising approach to help achieve this goal is the use of compounds of natural origin, biostimulants, with no or very low environmental and health impact to manage crop diseases. Examples of such compounds are elicitor molecules able to activate plant pathogen defense or antimicrobials with a direct effect on plant pathogens. The ?Instituto de Tecnología Agroindustrial del Noroeste Argentino? (ITANOA) has since its foundation in 2013 actively worked on developing new biostimulants as important tools for sustainable production of regional crops. Two such products developed at ITANOA are: PSP1 (Plant Stimulation and Protection 1) based on the plant defense-elicitor protein AsES (Acremonium strictum elicitor subtilisin), which confers protection against a broad-range of pathogens; and PSP2 an experimental formula based on secondary metabolites from strawberry plants with both antimicrobial and plant resistance inducing activities. In initial experiments PSP1-treatment of sugarcane was shown to trigger innate pathogen defense responses and improved protection against red stripe disease caused by the bacterial pathogen Acidovorax avenae. Similar studies are under way for PSP2 and results from both PSP1 and PSP2-treatments will be presented.