Study of the Mechanism of Action of a New Product for the Control of Fungal Diseases

Diseases caused by fungal pathogens represent one of the biggest agricultural problems worldwide in terms of economic losses due to reduced yield and the cost of treatment with fungicides used to control these diseases. In the event of a fungal attack, the resistance or susceptibility of the plants to infection will depend on the magnitude and the speed of activation of their defense mechanisms. Optimus is a protein enzyme hydrolysate with phosphorus and has been specially designed by the Bioibérica, S.A. R&D department to fight this type of biotic stress and elicit the plant’s defensive response by stimulating the expression of pathogenesis-related (PR) proteins and increasing the activity of enzymes of the phenylpropanoid compound synthesis pathway. Its efficacy in the field has been tested in several vegetable and fruit crops and grape vines against a wide range of pathogens. This study presents an experiment carried out on grape vines (Vitis vinifera) cv. Chardonnay, examining the effect of Optimus on controlling vine mildew (Plasmopara viticola)