R.K.S. Wood's research while affiliated with Imperial College London and other places

... If the introduced strain is equipped with certain discriminating feature(s) over the indigenous microflora that confers it the capacity to compete for restricted space and nutrients, the strain succeeds in colonizing the rhizosphere. Characteristics that offer selective advantage to the introduced strain in the rhizosphere include the flagellar motility (de Weger et al. 1987), ability to utilize root exudates and adherence to root surfaces mediated by agglutination (Slusarenko et al. 1983) or with the help of surface structures like pili (Vesper 1987); fimbriae (Vesper and Bauer 1986); exopolysaccharides like cellulose fibrils (Smit et al. 1986) and O-antigens chains of liposachharides (de Weger et al. 1989), etc. Possession of these feature(s) thus improves the probability of successful colonization by manifolds. Ability of the introduced strain to generate phenotypically diverse population with the help of site-specific recombinases (Granero et al. 2005) and to produce antibiotics (Mazzola et al. 1992) also influence the ecological competence. ...

... It is well-recognised that most plant pathogenic fungi are relatively host specific (Wood 1976; Daly 1979; Agrios 2005). The term host specificity is, however, reserved for species that derive their nutrition from live host plants. ...

... There was a significant positive correlation between the concentration of antioxidant compounds and the antioxidant activity measured by the reaction with the radical ABTS [36][37][38]. Along with the growth of microscopic fungi, the defense mechanisms of wood dust are activated in the form of the release of low-molecular-weight antioxidants from cells and their introduction into the metabolism of microscopic fungi [45][46][47][48]. This leads to growth inhibition, which was observed in our studies as a decrease in ERG levels. ...

... Cependant, ces dernières recèlent non seulement une activité enzymatique réduite, mais encore des inhibiteurs aquasolubles de la transéliminase.Huit jours après le début de l'incubation, la teneur en phénols est 4 fois plus forte au niveau des lésions limitées. Cependant, alors que la teneur en polyphénols des tissus infectés reste comparable à celle des témoins(Heath et Wood, 1971 a), la croissance des lésions évolutives sur folioles flottantes s'accompagne de la diffusion dans le support aqueux de composés vraisemblablement quinoniques, de couleur brune. La nécrose liée à une active macération se développe alors sans brunissement. ...

... Later, Perchepied et al. (2005) demonstrated, using a QTL analysis, that the partial resis- tance to Fom race 1.2 in melons is governed in part by shared loci, as well as by a strain specific locus. Wood (1986) suggested that genes controlling race non-specific resistance were genes for high resistance to avirulent races which retained residual minor effects in relation to the alleles of corre- sponding virulent races. Polygenic race non-specific resistance then becomes the sum of the minor "failed" resistance. ...

... In addition, amino-acid applications have also been reported to stimulate host resistance (Van Andel, 1966). Mercer et al. (1970) demonstrated that excess nutrients encourage Colletotrichum lindemuthianum to develop saprophytically with an apparent suppression of appresoria formation and thus normal pathogenic behavior. The application of nutrients on leaves has been found not only to enhance the competitive ability of natural antagonists of pathogens, but also to neutralize the effect agricultural chemicals had on the natural microbial inhabitants (Dik, 1991) Although it was suggested by other authors that B. subtilis operates solely by the production of anti-microbial substances (Lenné and Parbery 1976;Pusey and Wilson, 1984;Singh and Deverall, 1984;McKeen et al., 1986;Utkhede and Shollberg, 1986;Pusey et al., 1988;Pruvost and Luisetti, 1991), this study showed however that the production of antimicrobial substances are dependent on the availability of selective nutrients. ...

... We have not observed of secondary lesions on tissue located outside of the brown margin that will can showing their damage. Heath and Wood (1971) think that this is the maceration of enzymes that involved in the genesis of necrosis with limited sizes under effects of A. pisi and A. pinodes. According to Van Etten et al. (1989), A. pisi seems more sensitive to pisatin (main phytoalexine of pea) compared to other parasites of the same host. ...

... It was found that they produce about forty compounds, most of which are toxic to organisms. These compounds were classified into groups based on their chemical composition, and their presence on stored grains leads to a decrease in grain germination, and changes Color, weight loss, putrefaction, in addition to the possibility of excreting toxins such as Alternariol, which are chemical compounds of low molecular weight (Ballio, 1991). Which cause serious diseases for both humans and animals (Christensen and Kaufman, 1969),A. ...

... Bioavailability to plants and soil-inhabiting organisms of pesticides retained in soil is probably a major source to the food chain and an important route of exposure to humans and animals. Some recalcitrant pesticides are considered non-toxic at the concentrations found in the environment, but they can reach hazardous levels when they become biomagnified in natural food chains343536. ...

... Another type of agglutinin, which definitely does not determine spec recognition, was found by Slusarenko and Wood (1981). They isolated of the virulent strains. ...