LiveScience's Image of the Day

Fighting Strawberry Fuzz

Wednesday March 2, 2005

More Images...

The gray mold on this ripe strawberry is the fungus Botrytis cinerea. The disease is one of the most common and serious to afflict the tiny, delectable fruit, but the fungus also attacks tomatoes, grapes, potatoes, sugarcane and many ornamental flowers.

To fight Botrytis, researchers have begun testing a new agricultural fungicide based on a naturally occurring compound, called sampangine, which was originally meant to treat human fungal infections. In 1990, the University of Mississippi patented sampangine for clinical use, but the treatment was never released pharmaceutically.

Scientists at the Agricultural Research Service and the University of Mississippi have found that sampangine shows potential as a broad-spectrum, low-toxicity control of fungal plant pathogens. This could be especially beneficial in battling Botrytis fungal strains now resistant to commonly-used fungicides.

-- LiveScience Staff

Credit: Scott Bauer

Advertisement

From the Blogs

LiveScience Blogs
  1. The Bug Hunt Is On. Target: Marine Aliens
  2. HARPS Discovery - HD 40307 And Its Three Super-Earths
  3. Can This British Columbia Lake Tell Us Something About Life On Other Planets?
  4. Power Equals Positive Action But Only When Acquired Legitimately
  5. X Chromosome Gets Some Respect As An Evolutionary Tool
  6. Estrogen Therapy May Limit Strokes In Women - But The Timing Has To Be Right
  7. Reminder: Garth Sundem's Foolproof Equations On The Science Channel Tonight At 6PM
  1. 6.15.2008 | Tariq Malik
    Father?s Day on Earth, in Space
    t’s Father’s Day on Earth, and just in time for the seven-astronaut crew of NASA’s shuttle Discovery, which landed yesterday in... ...
  2. 6.14.2008 | Robert Roy Britt
    Cutting the Technotether That Ruins Your Life
    he deluge of office and personal email and IM and texting, along with web surfing, putzing with iTunes and so on has workers increasingly distracted... ...

Related Items from the LiveScience Store

  1. Go to Store
  2. Go to Store

More Stores to Explore