Mineral nutrients influence plant health and are involved in plant protection. A healthy plant will have strong vigor and improved disease resistance. All the essential nutrients are reported to influence the incidence or severity of some disease, whereas no single nutrient controls all diseases or favors disease control for any one group of plant (Huber and Graham 1999). Plants under nutritional stress are more susceptible to disease. The primary macronutrient are nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) and secondary macronutrient calcium (Ca), sulfur (S) and magnesium (Mg) and the micronutrients are boron (B), chlorine (Cl), manganese (Mn), iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), molybdenum (Mo), and nickel (Ni) (Gupta et al., 2017).
Pathogens can immobilize nutrients in rhizosphere or in infected tissues or even hinder efficient utilization of nutrients by causing nutrient deficiency, hyperaccumulation and nutrient toxicity (Huber and Graham 1999, Spann and Schumann 2010; Pandey and Ghimire 2022). Nutrient can affect sporulation and infection rate of pathogen, integrity of cell walls, membrane leakage and chemical composition, growth rate of hosts enabling seedling to escape or avoid infection during their susceptible stages (Pandey and Ghimire 2022).
The rate and form of nitrogen influence the severity of tan spot of winter wheat caused by Pyrenophora tritici-repentis and that nitrogen management may control this disease (Huber 1987). The leaf spot diseases on winter wheat are tan spot and Stagonospora nodorum blotch. Nitrogen application lowered the severity of leaf spot diseases (Krupinsky and Tanaka 2001). Calcium nitrate reduced inoculum density and high levels of ammonium sulphate also contributed to reduction of Phytophthora root rot (Lee and Zentmyer 1982). Disease incidence and severity of brown blotch disease of chickpea was reduced significantly at higher levels of phosphorus irrespective of the method of application (Owolade et al., 2006). Potassium and calcium play a key role in forming an effective barrier to infection. When potassium, calcium and nitrogen are deficient, plant is more susceptible to bacterial attack (Spann and Schumann 2010). There are two resistance mechanism that mineral nutrition can affect: formation of mechanical barrier (cell wall strengthening), and the synthesis of defense compound such as phytoalexins antioxidants and flavonoids that provide protection against the pathogen (Spann and Schumann 2010). Potassium deficiency causes cell wall to become leaky resulting in high sugar and amino acid concentration in the leaf apoplast as well as calcium deficiencies also trigger the accumulation of sugars and amino acids in the apoplast which lower disease resistance (Spann and Schumann 2010). Adequate calcium inhibits the formation of enzymes produced by fungi and bacteria, that can dissolve the middle lamella and allow infection by pathogen.
Common scab of potato caused by Streptomyces scabies and black scurf on tuber caused by Rhizoctonia solani was reducedby sulfur fertilizer application (Pavlista 2005). Urea and ammonium sulfate reduce common scab of potato and increase tuber production (Mira and Resende 2022). Silicon is a bioactive element and alleviates abiotic and biotic stresses as well as Si creates a physical barrier which can restrict fungal pathogen or may induce accumulation of antifungal compounds (Dordas 2008; Fauteux et al., 2005).
Zinc is an important micronutrient for plants and serves as a cofactor to many enzymes involved in the metabolism of various biomolecules including proteins, carbohydrates, nucleic acids and lipids (Rakhra and Rakhra 2021). Zinc enhances the signaling of various defense pathways like salicylic acid-dependent pathways and jasmonic acid/ethylene-dependent pathways as well as improves membrane integrity assisting in defense against pathogen’s attack (Bastakoti 2023). Zn ions control intercellular communication and intracellular events that maintain normal physiological processes (Costa et al., 2023). Zinc serves as a cofactor of catalytic and structural proteins and has a key function in the protein domains that interacts with other molecules (Cabot et al., 2019). Zinc has a role as constituent of over 300 enzymes from all six enzyme classes. The only element found across all six enzyme classes (lyases, transferases, hydrolases, isomerases, oxidoreductases and ligases) (Saleem et al., 2022). Zinc proteins play a dual role in plant defense, that simultaneously aid and abet the plant and the invaders (Cabot et al., 2019). Zinc increases the expression of various antioxidant systems, detoxifying the harmful level of free radicals upon infection (Bastakoti 2023). A deficiency of Zn makes plant susceptible to infection while an excess level negatively impacts growth and defense due to toxicity. Zinc application had a positive effect on the tolerance of wheat to Fusarium solani root rot (Khoshgoftarmanesh et al. 2010). The zinc-sufficient plants are found to be more tolerant to the root infection by Fusarium than the zinc deficient plants, this may be due the fungitoxicity of zinc and the role of zinc in stabilizing the membrane of root cells (Khoshgoftarmanesh et al. 2010). Zinc oxide nanoparticle showed antifungal activity against the fungal pathogens (Malandrakis et al., 2019; Pan et al., 2022). Boron and zinc can improve the structural integrity and permeability of cell membranes, which is a defense mechanism against fungi infection. Zn reduced incidence and severity of potato early blight (Machado et al. 2018). Mineral nutrients may be applied in a manner where it can be utilized for disease control.
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