JERUSALEM, April 3 (Xinhua) -- Israeli researchers have developed a new method to detect a common fungal wilt disease in tomatoes at its earliest stages, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU) said in a statement on Thursday.

Fusarium wilt, caused by a soilborne fungus, blocks the plant's vascular system, disrupting the flow of water and nutrients. This leads to symptoms such as yellowing leaves, wilting, stunted growth, and, ultimately, plant death. By the time these symptoms are visible, significant damage has often already occurred, and infected plants must be removed, as there is no cure for the disease.

In a study published in Plant Disease, researchers monitored transpiration rates and biomass changes in tomato plants in a semi-controlled greenhouse environment using a lysimeter, a cylindrical container filled with soil designed to study water and material movement through the soil.

They observed a decline in the plants' transpiration rates days to weeks before any visible symptoms appeared.

The researchers said the findings demonstrate that water-related physiological traits can serve as reliable early indicators of Fusarium infection.

Additionally, they noted that the quantitative method they used can measure pathogen virulence and plant susceptibility, providing data on how aggressively a pathogen affects crops and how different tomato varieties resist or tolerate the fungus.

The team also successfully applied the method to potato plants infected with late blight, demonstrating its potential for monitoring other plant diseases. Enditem

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