Augmenting the protective effect of two difenoconazole-containing fungicides against stem canker of potato using plant resistance inducing bacterial protein MF3

The protective effect of the MF3 protein from Pseudomonas fluorescens against Rhizoctonia solani was evaluated on potato plants, as well as its ability to augment fungicidal efficacy of difenoconazole-containing Score® EC 250 and Celest^® Top FS 312.5 commercial preparations when applied jointly with these fungicides. It has been first found that the pre-planting treatment of black scurf-infected potato tubers with MF3 significantly reduces the number of affected plants comparing to the control. In parallel, MF3 implementation together with fungicides allows tenfold decreasing the fungicides dosage without reducing their protective effect. The revealed augmentation of the protective effect of aforementioned fungicidal formulations combined with MF3 achieved due to the synergism between this protein and the fungicides. The further study on the MF3 capability for improving the efficacy of triazole-based and other fungicides used against other plant pathogenic fungi is under progress.