Enhancement of Disease Control Efficacy of Chemical Fungicides Combined with Plant Resistance Inducer 2,3-Butanediol against Turfgrass Fungal Diseases

Turfgrass, the most widely grown ornamental crop, is severely affected by fungal pathogens including Sclerotinia homoeocarpa, Rhizoctonia solani, and Magnaporthe poae. At present, turfgrass fungal disease management predominantly relies on synthetic fungicide treatments. However, the extensive application of fungicides to the soil increases residual detection frequency, raising concerns for the environment and human health. The bacterial volatile compound, 2,3-butanediol (BDO), was found to induce plant resistance. In this study, we evaluated the disease control efficacy of a combination of stereoisomers of 2,3-BDO and commercial fungicides against turfgrass fungal diseases in both growth room and fields. In the growth room experiment, the combination of 0.9% 2R,3R-BDO (levo) soluble liquid (SL) formulation and 9% 2R,3S-BDO (meso) SL with half concentration of fungicides significantly increased the disease control efficacy against dollar spot and summer patch disease when compared to the half concentration of fungicide alone. In field experiments, the disease control efficiency of levo 0.9% and meso 9% SL, in combination with a fungicide, was confirmed against dollar spot and large patch disease. Additionally, the induction of defense-related genes involved in the salicylic acid and jasmonic acid/ethylene signaling pathways and reactive oxygen species detoxification-related genes under Clarireedia sp. infection was confirmed with levo 0.9% and meso 9% SL treatment in creeping bentgrass. Our findings suggest that 2,3-BDO isomer formulations can be combined with chemical fungicides as a new integrated tool to control Clarireedia sp. infection in turfgrass, thereby reducing the use of chemical fungicides.     

Advances in understanding the mechanism of resistance to anthracnose and induced defence response in tea plants

The tea plant (Camellia sinensis) is susceptible to anthracnose disease that causes considerable crop loss and affects the yield and quality of tea. Multiple Colletotrichum spp. are the causative agents of this disease, which spreads quickly in warm and humid climates. During plant–pathogen interactions, resistant cultivars defend themselves against the hemibiotrophic pathogen by activating defence signalling pathways, whereas the pathogen suppresses plant defences in susceptible varieties. Various fungicides have been used to control this disease on susceptible plants, but these fungicide residues are dangerous to human health and cause fungicide resistance in pathogens. The problem-solving approaches to date are the development of resistant cultivars and ecofriendly biocontrol strategies to achieve sustainable tea cultivation and production. Understanding the infection stages of Colletotrichum, tea plant resistance mechanisms, and induced plant defence against Colletotrichum is essential to support sustainable disease management practices in the field. This review therefore summarizes the current knowledge of the identified causative agent of tea plant anthracnose, the infection strategies and pathogenicity of C. gloeosporioides, anthracnose disease resistance mechanisms, and the caffeine-induced defence response against Colletotrichum infection. The information reported in this review will advance our understanding of host–pathogen interactions and eventually help us to develop new disease control strategies.     

Fungicide effects on human fungal pathogens: Cross-resistance to medical drugs and beyond

Fungal infections are underestimated threats that affect over 1 billion people, and Candida spp., Cryptococcus spp., and Aspergillus spp. are the 3 most fatal fungi. The treatment of these infections is performed with a limited arsenal of antifungal drugs, and the class of the azoles is the most used. Although these drugs present low toxicity for the host, there is an emergence of therapeutic failure due to azole resistance. Drug resistance normally develops in patients undergoing azole long-term therapy, when the fungus in contact with the drug can adapt and survive. Conversely, several reports have been showing that resistant isolates are also recovered from patients with no prior history of azole therapy, suggesting that other routes might be driving antifungal resistance. Intriguingly, antifungal resistance also happens in the environment since resistant strains have been isolated from plant materials, soil, decomposing matter, and compost, where important human fungal pathogens live. As the resistant fungi can be isolated from the environment, in places where agrochemicals are extensively used in agriculture and wood industry, the hypothesis that fungicides could be driving and selecting resistance mechanism in nature, before the contact of the fungus with the host, has gained more attention. The effects of fungicide exposure on fungal resistance have been extensively studied in Aspergillus fumigatus and less investigated in other human fungal pathogens. Here, we discuss not only classic and recent studies showing that environmental azole exposure selects cross-resistance to medical azoles in A. fumigatus, but also how this phenomenon affects Candida and Cryptococcus, other 2 important human fungal pathogens found in the environment. We also examine data showing that fungicide exposure can select relevant changes in the morphophysiology and virulence of those pathogens, suggesting that its effect goes beyond the cross-resistance.     

Effect of timing of application Pseudomonas fluorescens in suppression Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, the causal agent of white mold in canola

Biological control of sclerotinia disease, as an important alternative to chemical control, has received considerable attention due to the lack of resistant varieties in most crop, and increasing concerns over fungicide resistance in population of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, and fungicide residues in the environment. One biocontrol agent, Pseudomonas fluorescens PB-3, has been showed the antagonistic relationship between itself and S. sclerotiorum was investigated in this study. A petal infection technique was used to detect efficacy of timing of application strain PB-3 in the suppression of S. sclerotiorum on canola. Significant difference in disease severity (p<0.05) were found with respect to timing of ascospore applications in the control treatments (ascospores only). The superior competitive ability strain PB-3 was demonstrated by its complete suppression of disease severity when applied as a co-inoculation treatment or prior to ascospores inoculation. Analysis of effect of applying strain PB-3 after ascospores was indicated that treatment in which strain PB-3 was added to petals 48 or 24 h after ascospores, or when there were no bacteria present at all, had higher rates of disease progression. It would be appear that bacteria are able to significantly inhibit disease when applied before or even at the same time as ascospores. In a practical sense, this could mean that a field application of antagonist could be concurrent with infection by the pathogen.     

Transgenic Potatoes Expressing a Novel Cationic Peptide are Resistant to Late Blight and Pink Rot

Potato is the world's largest non-cereal crop. Potato late blight is a pandemic, foliar wasting potato disease caused by Phytophthora infestans, which has become highly virulent, fungicide resistant, and widely disseminated. Similarly, fungicide resistant isolates of Phytophthora erythroseptica, which causes pink rot, have also become an economic scourge of potato tubers. Thus, an alternate, cost effective strategy for disease control has become an international imperative. Here we describe a strategy for engineering potato plants exhibiting strong protection against these exceptionally virulent pathogens without deleterious effects on plant yield or vigor. The small, naturally occurring antimicrobial cationic peptide, temporin A, was N-terminally modified (MsrA3) and expressed in potato plants. MsrA3 conveyed strong resistance to late blight and pink rot phytopathogens in addition to the bacterial pathogen Erwinia carotovora. Transgenic tubers remained disease-free during storage for more than 2 years. These results provide a timely, sustainable, effective, and environmentally friendly means of control of potato diseases while simultaneously preventing storage losses.     

Invasion thresholds for fungicide resistance: deterministic and stochastic analyses

Fungicide resistance is an important practical problem, but one that is poorly understood at the population level. Here we introduce a simple nonlinear model for fungicide resistance in botanical epidemics which includes the dynamics of the chemical control agent and the host population, while also allowing for demographic stochasticity in the host-parasite dynamics. This provides a mathematical framework for analysing the risk of fungicide resistance developing by including the parameters for the amount applied, longevity and application frequency of the fungicide. The model demonstrates the existence of thresholds for the invasion of the resistant strain in the parasite population which depend on two quantities: the relative fitness of the resistant strain and the effectiveness of control. This threshold marks a change from definite elimination of the resistant strain below the threshold to a finite probability of invasion which increases above the threshold. The fungicide decay rate, the amount of fungicide applied and the period between applications affect the effectiveness of control and, consequently, they influence whether or not resistance develops and the time taken to achieve a critical frequency of resistance. All three parameters are amenable to control by the grower or by coordinating the activity of a population of growers. Providing crude estimates of the effectiveness of control and relative fitness are available, the results can be used to predict the consequences of changing these parameters for the risk of invasion and the proportion of sites at which this might be expected to occur. Although motivated for fungicide resistance, the model has broader application to herbicide, antibiotic and antiviral resistance. The modelling approach and results are discussed in the context of resistance to chemical control in general.     

A comparative evaluation of modelling strategies for the effect of treatment and host interactions on the spread of drug resistance

The evolutionary responses of infectious pathogens often have ruinous consequences for the control of disease spread in the population. Drug resistance is a well-documented instance that is generally driven by the selective pressure of drugs on both the replication of the pathogen within hosts and its transmission between hosts. Management of drug resistance therefore requires the development of treatment strategies that can impede the emergence and spread of resistance in the population. This study evaluates various treatment strategies for influenza infection as a case study by comparing the long-term epidemiological outcomes predicted by deterministic and stochastic versions of a homogeneously mixing (mean-field) model and those predicted by a heterogeneous model that incorporates spatial pair-wise correlation. We discuss the importance of three major parameters in our evaluation: the basic reproduction number, the population level of treatment, and the degree of clustering as a key parameter determining the structure of heterogeneous interactions. The results show that, as a common feature in all models, high treatment levels during the early stages of disease outset can result in large resistant outbreaks, with the possibility of a second wave of infection appearing in the pair-approximation model. Our simulations demonstrate that, if the basic reproduction number exceeds a threshold value, the population-wide spread of the resistant pathogen emerges more rapidly in the pair-approximation model with significantly lower treatment levels than in the homogeneous models. We tested an antiviral strategy that delays the onset of aggressive treatment for a certain amount of time after the onset of the outbreak. The findings indicate that the overall disease incidence is reduced as the degree of clustering increases, and a longer delay should be considered for implementing the large-scale treatment.     

Targeting Imperfect Vaccines against Drug-Resistance Determinants: A Strategy for Countering the Rise of Drug Resistance

The growing prevalence of antimicrobial resistance in major pathogens is outpacing discovery of new antimicrobial classes. Vaccines mitigate the effect of antimicrobial resistance by reducing the need for treatment, but vaccines for many drug-resistant pathogens remain undiscovered or have limited efficacy, in part because some vaccines selectively favor pathogen strains that escape vaccine-induced immunity. A strain with even a modest advantage in vaccinated hosts can have high fitness in a population with high vaccine coverage, which can offset a strong selection pressure such as antimicrobial use that occurs in a small fraction of hosts. We propose a strategy to target vaccines against drug-resistant pathogens, by using resistance-conferring proteins as antigens in multicomponent vaccines. Resistance determinants may be weakly immunogenic, offering only modest specific protection against resistant strains. Therefore, we assess here how varying the specific efficacy of the vaccine against resistant strains would affect the proportion of drug-resistant vs. –sensitive strains population-wide for three pathogens – Streptococcus pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, and influenza virus – in which drug resistance is a problem. Notably, if such vaccines confer even slightly higher protection (additional efficacy between 1% and 8%) against resistant variants than sensitive ones, they may be an effective tool in controlling the rise of resistant strains, given current levels of use for many antimicrobial agents. We show that the population-wide impact of such vaccines depends on the additional effect on resistant strains and on the overall effect (against all strains). Resistance-conferring accessory gene products or resistant alleles of essential genes could be valuable as components of vaccines even if their specific protective effect is weak.     

Association between Virulence and Triazole Tolerance in the Phytopathogenic Fungus Mycosphaerella graminicola

Host resistance and synthetic antimicrobials such as fungicides are two of the main approaches used to control plant diseases in conventional agriculture. Although pathogens often evolve to overcome host resistance and antimicrobials, the majority of reports have involved qualitative host – pathogen interactions or antimicrobials targeting a single pathogen protein or metabolic pathway. Studies that consider jointly the evolution of virulence, defined as the degree of damage caused to a host by parasite infection, and antimicrobial resistance are rare. Here we compared virulence and fungicide tolerance in the fungal pathogen Mycosphaerella graminicola sampled from wheat fields across three continents and found a positive correlation between virulence and tolerance to a triazole fungicide. We also found that quantitative host resistance selected for higher pathogen virulence. The possible mechanisms responsible for these observations and their consequences for sustainable disease management are discussed.     

At least two origins of fungicide resistance in grapevine downy mildew populations

Quinone outside inhibiting (QoI) fungicides represent one of the most widely used groups of fungicides used to control agriculturally important fungal pathogens. They inhibit the cytochrome bc1 complex of mitochondrial respiration. Soon after their introduction onto the market in 1996, QoI fungicide-resistant isolates were detected in field plant pathogen populations of a large range of species. However, there is still little understanding of the processes driving the development of QoI fungicide resistance in plant pathogens. In particular, it is unknown whether fungicide resistance occurs independently in isolated populations or if it appears once and then spreads globally by migration. Here, we provide the first case study of the evolutionary processes that lead to the emergence of QoI fungicide resistance in the plant pathogen Plasmopara viticola. Sequence analysis of the complete cytochrome b gene showed that all resistant isolates carried a mutation resulting in the replacement of glycine by alanine at codon 143 (G143A). Phylogenetic analysis of a large mitochondrial DNA fragment including the cytochrome b gene (2,281 bp) across a wide range of European P. viticola isolates allowed the detection of four major haplotypes belonging to two distinct clades, each of which contains a different QoI fungicide resistance allele. This is the first demonstration that a selected substitution conferring resistance to a fungicide has occurred several times in a plant-pathogen system. Finally, a high population structure was found when the frequency of QoI fungicide resistance haplotypes was assessed in 17 French vineyards, indicating that pathogen populations might be under strong directional selection for local adaptation to fungicide pressure.     

我国小麦赤霉病成灾原因分析及防控策略探讨

小麦是世界上三大粮食作物之一,是全球30亿以上人口的主粮。近年来,由于各种病虫害危害,全球小麦生产和粮食安全受到严重威胁,其中由禾谷镰刀菌引起的小麦赤霉病是小麦生产上重要的病害之一。此外,病菌会产生多种真菌毒素对人畜生命健康构成严重威胁。化学药剂的使用以及抗病品种的种植可以有效地控制小麦赤霉病的发生。但是,由于高产优质抗病品种匮乏、气候变暖等因素影响,小麦赤霉病在我国小麦主产区频繁暴发;同时,赤霉病菌抗药性产生致使化学农药的防控效果大大降低。从气候变化、耕作制度改变、小麦品种抗性及病菌抗药性等方面,分析了赤霉病暴发成灾的主要原因。在此基础上,结合当前赤霉病防控研究进展以及存在的科学问题,探讨该病害持续绿色防控的对策建议,以期为我国小麦赤霉病的防控研究提供参考。     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Trichoderma</Emphasis> as a potential biocontrol agent for Cercospora leaf spot of sugar beet

Leaf spot disease caused by Cercospora beticola Sacc. (class Ascomycota, ord. Dothideales, fam. Mycosphaerellaceae) is the most destructive foliar disease of sugar beet. Commercial varieties are partially resistant and require repeated fungicide applications to obtain adequate protection levels; this has a high environmental impact and a risk of selecting resistant pathogen strains. A way of reducing chemical inputs could be to use biocontrol agents to replace or supplement fungicide treatments. A well-known class of biological control agents is represented by the fungi belonging to the Trichoderma genus (class Ascomycota, ord. Hypocreales, fam. Hypocreaceae), but there is a lack of information about its behaviour towards C. beticola. This study reports the evaluation of several Trichoderma isolates as possible biocontrol agents of this pathogen. Preliminary in vitro and in vivo assays led to the selection of two Trichoderma isolates characterised by their ability to reduce pathogen sporulation and antagonism towards the pathogen or competence for sugar beet phyllosphere. Repeated foliar applications of the liquid culture homogenate preceded by a single treatment of difenoconazole in 2 year trials under natural inoculum in field reduced the disease incidence and pathogen sporulation from the necrotic spots. An increase in sugar yield was also obtained by means of isolate Ba12/86-based treatments, perhaps due to induced resistance effects.     

Exploiting the full potential of disease-resistance genes for agricultural use

Effective and sustained control of fungal pathogens and nematodes is an important issue for all agricultural systems. Global losses caused by pathogens are estimated to be 12% of the potential crop production [1], despite the continued release of new resistant cultivars and pesticides. Furthermore, fungi are continually becoming resistant to existing resistance genes and fungicides, and a few of the pesticides are being withdrawn from the market for environmental reasons. In addition to reducing crop yield, fungal diseases often lower crop quality by producing toxins that affect humans and human health. Additional methods of disease control are therefore highly desirable. Breeding programs based on plant disease-resistance genes are being optimized by incorporating molecular marker techniques and biotechnology. These efforts can be expected to result in the first launches of new disease-resistant crops within the next five years.     

A single point mutation in the novel PvCesA3 gene confers resistance to the carboxylic acid amide fungicide mandipropamid in Plasmopara viticola

The grapevine downy mildew, Plasmopara viticola, is one of the most devastating pathogens in viticulture. Effective control is mainly based on fungicide treatments, although resistance development in this pathogen is reported for a number of fungicides. In this study we describe for the first time the molecular mechanism of resistance to a carboxylic acid amide (CAA) fungicide. We identified a family of four cellulose synthase (CesA) genes containing conserved domains that are found in all processive glycosyltransferases. Phylogenetic analysis revealed their close relationship to the cellulose synthases of Phytophthora sp. Sequencing of the CesA genes in a CAA- resistant and -sensitive field isolate revealed five single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) affecting the amino acid structure of the proteins. SNP inheritance in F₁-, F₂- and F₃-progeny confirmed resistance to be correlated with one single SNP located in PvCesA3. Only if present in both alleles, this SNP led to the substitution of a glycine for a serine residue at position 1105 (G1105S) in the deduced amino acid sequence, thus conferring CAA- resistance. Our data demonstrate that the identified genes are putative cellulose synthases and that one recessive mutation in PvCesA3 causes inheritable resistance to the CAA fungicide mandipropamid.     

Costs of resistance to fungal pathogens in genetically modified wheat

Aims Many resistance genes against fungal pathogens show costs of resistance. Genetically modified (GM) plants that differ in only one or a few resistance genes from control plants present ideal systems for measuring these costs in the absence of pathogens.Methods To assess the ecological relevance of costs of pathogen resistance, we grew individual plants of four transgenic spring wheat lines in a field trial with three pathogen levels and varied the genetic diversity of the crop.Important findings We found that two lines with a Pm3b transgene were more resistant to powdery mildew than their sister lines of the variety Bobwhite, whereas lines with chitinase (A9) or chitinase and glucanase (A13) transgenes were not more resistant than their mother variety Frisal. Nevertheless, in the absence of the pathogen, both the GM lines of Bobwhite as well as those of Frisal performed significantly worse than their controls, i.e. Pm3b #1 and Pm3b #2 had 39% or 53% and A9 and A13 had 14% or 23% lower yields. In the presence of the pathogen, all GM lines except Pm3b #2 could increase their yields and other fitness-related traits, reaching the performance levels of the control lines. Line Pm3b #2 seemed to have lost its phenotypic plasticity and had low performance in all environments. This may have been caused by very high transgene expression. No synergistic effects of mixing different GM lines with each other were detected. This might have been due to high transgene expression or the similarity between the lines regarding their resistance genes. We conclude that costs of resistance can be high for transgenic plants with constitutive transgene expression and that this can occur even in cases where the non-transgenic control lines are already relatively resistant, such as in our variety Frisal. Transgenic plants could only compete with conventional varieties in environments with high pathogen pressure. Furthermore, the large variability among the GM lines, which may be due to unpredictable transgene expression, suggests that case-by-case assessments are necessary to evaluate costs of resistance.     

Resistance inducers applied alone or in association with fungicide for the management of leaf rust and brown eye spot of coffee under field conditions

The use of resistance inducers is a promising development in the management of plant diseases, owing to their ability to control a broad spectrum of pathogens and improve the efficacy of fungicides. This study evaluates different sources of phosphonates (potassium, manganese, copper), a formulation prepared from the by‐products of the coffee industry (Greenforce CuCa), as well as the effects of their application, alone or in association with fungicide, in the management of two important coffee fungal diseases in Brazil: leaf rust and brown eye spot, caused by Hemileia vastatrix and Cercospora coffeicola, respectively. The effect of these products on defoliation, productivity and chemical composition of coffee beans (content of trigonelline, chlorogenic acid, caffeine and total soluble solids) was evaluated. Among all the alternative products tested individually, potassium phosphonate (P₂O₅—33.6% + K₂O—29%) stood out, particularly for rust control, which was similar to the results of fungicide treatments. Treatments with fungicide, Greenforce CuCa and cuprous oxide, individually, caused less plant defoliation. Regarding the chemical composition of the coffee beans, the manganese phosphonate treatment showed the highest values for trigonelline, chlorogenic acid, caffeine and total soluble solid content. The results of this study show that resistance inducers can be useful in disease management, may come to eventually replace traditional fungicides and can also contribute to the beverage quality.     

芒果炭疽菌研究进展

芒果炭疽病是芒果生长期和采后贮藏期的主要病害之一,严重影响芒果的产量和品质。本文从芒果炭疽病的症状、病原菌分类鉴定、生物学特性、侵染特性及致病机理等方面进行综述;针对芒果炭疽病症状复杂、我国芒果炭疽病病原菌未获详细而系统的研究,指出全面了解我国芒果炭疽病的病原菌种类及优势种群,明确我国芒果炭疽菌的致病力强弱,有助于研究该病的发生流行规律,为抗病材料的选育和抗病品种在田间的合理布局提供参考。提出对我国芒果炭疽菌的抗药性进行系统监测分析,可防止或减缓芒果炭疽菌对杀菌剂抗药性的产生,从而有效减少化学农药的用量,为研究芒果炭疽病绿色防控新策略、新方法和新药剂奠定基础。     

At Least Two Origins of Fungicide Resistance in Grapevine Downy Mildew Populations

Quinone outside inhibiting (QoI) fungicides represent one of the most widely used groups of fungicides used to control agriculturally important fungal pathogens. They inhibit the cytochrome bc₁ complex of mitochondrial respiration. Soon after their introduction onto the market in 1996, QoI fungicide-resistant isolates were detected in field plant pathogen populations of a large range of species. However, there is still little understanding of the processes driving the development of QoI fungicide resistance in plant pathogens. In particular, it is unknown whether fungicide resistance occurs independently in isolated populations or if it appears once and then spreads globally by migration. Here, we provide the first case study of the evolutionary processes that lead to the emergence of QoI fungicide resistance in the plant pathogen Plasmopara viticola. Sequence analysis of the complete cytochrome b gene showed that all resistant isolates carried a mutation resulting in the replacement of glycine by alanine at codon 143 (G143A). Phylogenetic analysis of a large mitochondrial DNA fragment including the cytochrome b gene (2,281 bp) across a wide range of European P. viticola isolates allowed the detection of four major haplotypes belonging to two distinct clades, each of which contains a different QoI fungicide resistance allele. This is the first demonstration that a selected substitution conferring resistance to a fungicide has occurred several times in a plant-pathogen system. Finally, a high population structure was found when the frequency of QoI fungicide resistance haplotypes was assessed in 17 French vineyards, indicating that pathogen populations might be under strong directional selection for local adaptation to fungicide pressure.     

Sensitivity to Fludioxonil of Botrytis cinerea Isolates from Tomato in Henan Province of China and Characterizations of Fludioxonil‐resistant Mutants

Grey mould, caused by Botrytis cinerea Pers ex Fr., is one of the most common diseases of tomato worldwide. Fludioxonil belongs to the phenylpyrrole fungicides, which have high activity against B. cinerea. The sensitivity of fludioxonil was evaluated on the basis of the level of inhibition of mycelium growth in 274 B. cinerea isolates collected from different locations (untreated with this fungicide) in Henan Province, China. The EC₅₀ values for fludioxonil ranged from 0.0033 to 0.0415 mg/l, and the average EC₅₀ values were 0.0156 ± 0.0078 mg/l. Three fludioxonil‐resistant mutants were obtained by subculturing fludioxonil‐sensitive wild‐type isolates on continuously increasing fludioxonil concentrations. For the cross‐resistance assay, fludioxonil revealed positive cross‐resistance with procymidone but did not reveal cross‐resistance with pyrimethanil, boscalid and trifloxystrobin. Mycelial growth, conidial production, hyphal dry weight and pathogenicity were diminished significantly between the fludioxonil‐resistant mutants and their sensitive wild‐type parental isolates. This study shows for the first time that fludioxonil‐resistant isolates of B. cinerea are still not present in Henan Province because this fungicide is an attractive and effective fungicide for chemical control. Recommendations can be made to growers to use fludioxonil to control grey mould and to consider the potential moderate resistance risk of using this fungicide.     

Cerebroside as an elicitor for induced resistance against the downy mildew pathogen in pearl millet

Innate defence mechanisms in plants can be triggered and enhanced by certain agents, which are referred to as inducers. Inducing resistance against a broad spectrum of pathogens in otherwise susceptible plants is seen as a potentially safer alternative to other methods of chemical control of plant diseases. Cerebrosides, which are glycosphingolipids extracted from various plant pathogens, have been reported as resistance elicitors in the rice‐pathogen system. In the present study, cerebroside elicited resistance against downy mildew disease (caused by Sclerospora graminicola) of pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) that was highly significant. The resistance was of systemic nature and the time required for the resistance to build up was from 2 days onwards. There was a significant yield enhancement due to disease suppression by cerebroside treatment. Promising results were obtained in a preliminary field trial.