Importance
Aster yellows phytoplasma is an economically important plant pathogen both in agricultural and nursery industries. A 25% reduction in carrot yield is common with losses reaching 80% on occasion. Carrot crops infected with AYP causes symptoms that make the carrots unmarketable. In processed carrots, the presence of 15% of aster yellows-infected carrots results in a rejection of the entire product due to their distasteful flavor. The deformation of flowers and reproductive structures causes seed not to form. This can be a problem in crops that are grown for seed for replanting purposes, or for consumption, such as coriander or caraway. Root stunting can also result in loss of biannual crops over winter.
Similar problems arise in the nursery industry. Homeowners and landscapers purchasing plants do not want to buy an aster flower that is misshapen and has the potential to cause the spread of AYP to other plants. This makes it critical for nurseries to monitor their plants to prevent initial infection of the phytoplasma. Insecticides can be used to limit leaf hopper feeding on nursery stock and as soon as infected plants are seen, they must be removed.
Read more about this topic: Aster Yellows
Famous quotes containing the word importance:
“Society is the stage on which manners are shown; novels are the literature. Novels are the journal or record of manners; and the new importance of these books derives from the fact, that the novelist begins to penetrate the surface, and treat this part of life more worthily.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“When will the world learn that a million men are of no importance compared with one man?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“There are of course people who are more important than others in that they have more importance in the world but this is not essential and it ceases to be. I have no sense of difference in this respect because every human being comprises the combination form.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)