'Sneezing' plants: pathogen transport via jumping-droplet condensation.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Nath S
PROVIDER: S-EPMC6597768 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
'Sneezing' plants: pathogen transport via jumping-droplet condensation.
Nath Saurabh S Ahmadi S Farzad SF Gruszewski Hope A HA Budhiraja Stuti S Bisbano Caitlin E CE Jung Sunghwan S Schmale David G DG Boreyko Jonathan B JB
Journal of the Royal Society, Interface 20190619 155
We show that condensation growing on wheat leaves infected with the leaf rust fungus, Puccinia triticina, is capable of spontaneously launching urediniospores off the plant. This surprising liberation mechanism is enabled by the superhydrophobicity of wheat leaves, which promotes a jumping-droplet mode of condensation powered by the surface energy released from coalescence events. We found that urediniospores often adhere to the self-propelled condensate, resulting in liberation rates of approxi ...[more]
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