Summary: The isolation of Nectria galligena mutants resistant to benzoic acid (BA), the phytoalexin of immature apples, is reported. Those in which pathogenicity on mature apples was similar to the wild-type were inoculated in immature fruits. One mutant resistant to BA was more aggressive than the wild-type in young apples at the end of their maturation cycle. Aggressiveness of this mutant and the wild-type could be increased by growing the fungus before inoculation into the fruit on a medium supplemented with BA. Amounts of BA in mutant-infected and wild-type-infected tissues were similar. We conclude that BA is involved in the resistance of immature apples infected by N. galligena.
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Seng et al. (1985) studied this question.