Mohaddeseh Zal, Reza Mostowfizadeh-Ghalamfarsa,
Volume 3, Issue 1 (3-2014)
Abstract
Development of human civilization is closely associated with agricultural crops. The major threat to crops posed by fungal diseases results in the use by growers of enormous amounts of chemicals. Fungicides are compounds, which are toxic to fungi. These materials have been applied for a long time to reduce losses and increase the quality and yield of the agricultural products. Today in addition to improving the quality and quantity of agricultural products and protecting plants by fungicides, the fungicide resistance problem must also be considered. The appearance of resistance has an important factor in limiting the efficacy and useful lifetime of fungicides. In general, systemic fungicides have been associated with resistance problems to a much greater extent than have non-systemic (protectant) fungicides. However, there are some exceptions. This paper discusses the resistance mechanisms to fungicides of some phytopathogenic fungi (e.g. altered target site, reduced uptake of fungicide, removal, detoxification or metabolism of fungicide) at the molecular level and describes methods used in the molecular detection of fungal resistance (e.g. RFLP-PCR, and allele specific real-time PCR) to fungicides.
