2.3 Root zone warming enhances tomato resistance to powdery mildew disease
To determine whether RZW can induce tomato resistance to a biotrophic fungus, we examined the effect of RZW on pathogenesis of theOidium neolycopersici , which causes powdery mildew disease in tomato. Similar to the experiments detailed above for Bc andXcv , warming the root zone of tomato plants reduced the development of natural infection of tomato powdery mildew with the biotrophic fungus On (Figure 5 ).