Antifungal activities of sulphamide and dicarboximide fungicides against Botrytis cinerea in several in vitro bioassays

Two sulphamide (dichlofluanid and tolylfluanid) and three dicarboximide fungicides (iprodione, vinclozolin, procymidone) were used to investigate the correlation between in vitro antifungal activities and in vivo disease controlling activities against Botrytis cinerea, a causal agent of tomato gray mold and to develop efficient in vitro assays. They controlled effectively the development of tomato gray mold disease in vivo and their controlling activities were similar one another. However, several in vitro assays revealed that their in vitro antifungal activities were quite different between sulphamide and dicarboximide fungicides; the formers showed stronger inhibition activities for spore germination than the latters, whereas the formers inhibited mycelial growth less severely than the latters. The results indicate that the fungicides having different modes of action can show different in vitro antifungal activities according to in vitro assays, even if they have similar in vivo disease controlling activities. On the other hand, two rapid and efficient in vitro assays named Microtiter plate methods I (MPM I) and II (MPM II) were developed for the evaluation of fungicides for inhibitory activities against spore germination and mycelial growth of B. cinerea, respectively. The antifungal activities of five fungicides of two chemical groups in MPM I and II were correlated with the inhibitory activities against spore germination and mycelial growth using solid media, respectively.