ATPase association with the sudden wilt disease of cantaloupe [electronic resource].

Includes reference.

Sudden wilt disease of Cantaloupe (Cucumis melo var. cantaloupensis) is considered one of the main problems face planting of this crop in Egypt and all over the world. This disease led to great conflict between researchers concerning disease etiology, which ranged between specialists from agricultural practices till phytopathogenic fungi (i.e., Monosporascus cannonballus, Fusarium oxysporium and Pythium sp.). In the present study, it was postulated that the causal of such phenomenon may lead to imbalance of water absorption by plant roots. Therefore, ATPase activity and sugar fractions were determined in roots of diseased and healthy plants. Obtained data indicated that ATPase activity was greatly depressed in roots of diseased plants as compared to healthy ones. Data also indicated that the total and reducing sugars were very low in diseased plant roots compared with healthy ones. Irrigation of uninfected plants at flowering stage by water contained specific ATPase inhibitor (Omeprazole) led to appear disease syndromes on 62.5 % of treated plants. So the obtained results led to postulate that plant suffer from reduction of ATPase activity and reducing sugars may be predisposing factors that plants easily infected by different phytopathogenic fungi. Key Words: Cantaloupe – ATPase – Sugars - ATPase inhibitor - Sudden wilt.

Summary in Arabic.

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