Unleashing the synergistic effect of promising fungicides: a breakthrough solution for combating powdery mildew in pea plants

Maria; Ishrat Naz; Rizwan Khan; Syed Sartaj Alam; Owais Iqbal; Shazia Akram; Nasir Ahmed Rajput; Muhammad Usama Younas; Muhammad Qasim; Ijaz Ali; Heba H Elsalahy; Rashid Iqbal; Reem M Aljowaie; Shahzad Munir

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2024.1448033

Unleashing the synergistic effect of promising fungicides: a breakthrough solution for combating powdery mildew in pea plants

Front Microbiol. 2024 Oct 30:15:1448033. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1448033. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Maria^{1

2}, Ishrat Naz^{1

2}, Rizwan Khan^{1

2

3}, Syed Sartaj Alam^{1

2}, Owais Iqbal³, Shazia Akram⁴, Nasir Ahmed Rajput⁵, Muhammad Usama Younas⁶, Muhammad Qasim⁷, Ijaz Ali⁸, Heba H Elsalahy⁹, Rashid Iqbal^{10

11}, Reem M Aljowaie¹², Shahzad Munir³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Plant Pathology, Faculty of Crop Protection Sciences, The University of Agriculture, Peshawar, Pakistan.
² Department of Agriculture Extension, Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Peshawar, Pakistan.
³ State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Bio-Resources in Yunnan, Yunan Agricultural University, Kunming, China.
⁴ Faculty of Bioscience and Technology for Food, Agriculture, and Environment, University of Teramo, Teramo, Italy.
⁵ Department of Plant Pathology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan.
⁶ Key Laboratory of Plant Functional Genomics of the Ministry of Education/Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Crop Genomics and Molecular Breeding, Agricultural College of Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, China.
⁷ Microelement Research Center, College of Resources and Environment, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, Hubei, China.
⁸ Centre for Applied Mathematics and Bioinformatics, Gulf University for Science and Technology, Hawally, Kuwait.
⁹ Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), Müncheberg, Germany.
¹⁰ Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur, Pakistan.
¹¹ Department of Life Sciences, Western Caspian University, Baku, Azerbaijan.
¹² Department of Botany and Microbiology, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

Pea powdery mildew, caused by Erysiphe pisi, is a major limitation to global pea production. The emergence of fungicide-resistant pathogen populations due to frequent and injudicious pesticide application highlights the importance of exploring the synergistic properties of fungicide combinations. This study investigated the efficacy of difenoconazole, thiophanate-methyl, and sulfur, both individually and in mixtures, against powdery mildew and assessed the interaction types between these fungicides. The results demonstrated that the combination of difenoconazole, thiophanate-methyl, and sulfur was the most effective in reducing, reducing disease severity to 6.10% and minimizing conidial production on foliage. Additionally, this fungicide combination reduced conidial germination by 89.26% in vitro and by 87.50% in a detached leaf assay compared to the control. The treatment also positively impacted leaf chlorophyll content (55.18), green pod yield (22.21 tons ha^-1), seed yield (12.29 tons ha^-1), and other yield-related parameters. Although statistically significant, this ternary fungicide combination was closely followed by the binary combination of thiophanate-methyl and sulfur, which was the only combination exhibiting synergism in both laboratory and field trials with a synergy factor (SF) > 1. In conclusion, this approach offers improved disease control as part of integrated disease management (IDM) while minimizing the risk of resistant pathogen strains.

Keywords: Erysiphe pisi; Fungicides mixtures; disease control; pea; synergism.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The authors would like to extend their appreciation to the Researchers Supporting Project number (RSP2024R418), King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.