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Sensitivity of coca (Erythroxylum coca var. coca) to ethylene and fungal proteins
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 June 2017
Abstract
Leaves of coca are the primary source of cocaine. There is interest in using Fusarium oxysporum as a mycoherbicide in addition to other measures to control coca production, but information on coca physiology, including the stress responses of coca leaves, is limited. Deleafing coca plants stimulates rapid production of new leaves, and young expanding leaves readily abscise if treated with ethylene. Commercial preparations of cell wall degrading enzymes, as well as a 24-kDa elicitor from Fusarium oxysporum, induced significant levels of ethylene production by coca leaves. Ethylene pretreatment of coca leaves enhanced the production of ethylene by coca leaves in response to the cell wall degrading enzyme preparation, Driselase, and the 24-kDa elicitor. However, ethylene pretreatment did not enhance the rate of necrosis induced in response to either Driselase or purified 24-kDa elicitor. Driselase failed to elicit levels of necrosis comparable to the 24-kDa elicitor even at 30-fold higher protein concentrations. The response of coca leaves to the 24-kDa elicitor saturated at 6.7 μg ml−1. Age of coca leaves influenced both the level of resulting necrosis and the amount of ethylene produced in response to protein. Very young leaves produced the highest levels of ethylene and necrosis in response to Driselase and the 24-kDa elicitor. The data suggest that responsiveness of coca leaves to control measures may be synchronized over the first few weeks following defoliation.
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- Copyright © 1997 by the Weed Science Society of America