Split Applications of Copper Fungicides Improve Control of Melanose on Grapefruit in Florida.

Citrus melanose, caused by Diaporthe citri, is a major disease of fresh market grapefruit which is controlled primarily by preventive applications of copper fungicides. The goal of this research was to improve melanose control without increasing the total amount of metallic copper utilized. Disease control was assessed in field experiments for 3 years using one, two, three, or four applications of copper fungicides in which the same total amount of metallic copper was applied per season in each program. Melanose was severe in 1995 and 1997, and the four-application schedule provided better control than the one-, two-, or three-application programs. In 1996, disease pressure was low and all programs and fungicides provided equally effective control. Analysis of copper residues on the fruit indicated that loss of protection was attributable more to increase in fruit surface area when fruit were growing rapidly than to removal of copper by weathering. On larger, slower-growing fruit, loss of copper residues was apparently due to both factors. Economic evaluation of improved packouts of fresh market fruit and additional application costs indicated that net returns would be increased by $650 to $1,250 per hectare during years in which melanose was severe when the four-spray program was compared to a single spray.

Purification of a Zn-binding phloem protein with sequence identity to chitin-binding proteins.

In citrus blight, a decline disorder of unknown etiology, the tree canopy exhibits symptoms of Zn deficiency while Zn accumulates in the trunk phloem. We have purified a Zn-binding protein (ZBP) from phloem tissue of healthy and blight-affected citrus (Citrus sinensis [L.] Osbeck on Citrus jambhiri [L.]). The molecular weight of the ZBP was estimated to be 5000 by size-exclusion chromatography and sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Ion-exchange chromatography at pH 8.0 demonstrated the 5-kD ZBP to be anionic. A partial N-terminal amino acid sequence revealed a cysteine-, glycine-rich domain with 45 to 80% identity with the chitin-binding domain of hevein, wheat germ agglutinin, and several class I chitinases. That the abundance of this protein increased 2.5-fold in association with Zn accumulation in the phloem is characteristic of citrus blight. Tissue mass changes of the phloem suggests that altered tissue structure accompanies blight. Phloem accumulation of the 5-kD ZBP may be in response to wounding or other stress of blight-affected citrus.