The seed industry plays a crucial role in global food production but it faces a persistent challenge in ensuring the health and quality of seeds, particularly those of tomato and pepper seeds, which represent key seed commodities on the global market. Seeds can serve as potential pathways for the introduction and dissemination of seed-borne bacteria, which may have devastating effects on crop yield, farmers’ remunerability, and food security. Therefore, fungicides and other antimicrobial compounds are extensively used to disinfect the seeds, thus increasing the input of chemicals in the agri-environment. In this review, we address aspects that connect disease epidemiology with seed infection and health, including seed contamination, endophytic colonization, and seed-borne infections. We focused on the main bacterial diseases affecting tomato and pepper seeds by discussing their official seed testing methods as requirements supporting a smooth seed trade. Moreover, we present a survey on the past and recent innovations for seed treatments, focusing on sustainable disinfection methods. Therefore, this review will be a short but indispensable guide for seed technologists and pathologists involved in the production of high-quality seeds, providing indications and suggestions to contrast seed-borne pathogen dissemination and avoid international controversies and complaints by phytosanitary authorities, extension services, and farmers.

The sedentary endoparasitic nematodes, Meloidogyne species, induce the formation of permanent feeding structures in the roots and alter the morpho-physiological and molecular events during parasitism. Several parasitism genes have been identified, indicating that effector proteins are important players in plant nematode interactions. During the interaction, many molecular events occur in host plants, such as pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMP)-triggered immunity (PTI) and effector triggered immunity (ETI) by which they suppress parasitism genes of nematodes. Plant-nematode interactions are complex and dynamic events that reflect the activation and suppression of expressed genes encoding various defence-related proteins, hormones, and enzymes. The omic studies such as metabolomics, proteomics, genomics, and transcriptomics helped us learn more about how nematodes and their hosts work together. This review highlights the metabolic response of host plants during root-knot nematode interaction. In addition, we review the role of effector protein in host parasitism and defence-related pathways and highlight the transcriptional analysis of differentially expressed genes that remain and play key roles against nematode parasitism. We also gathered information on how these knowledge gaps could be addressed and correlated their potential impact and application in the parasitism of the Meloidogyne species.

Scaphoideus titanus Ball is a major pest of grapevine in Europe, being the main vector of Flavescence dorée phytoplasma (FDp). The North American grapevine leafhopper was identified in neighboring countries, however, the FDp vector was not recorded and there is no available data on its presence in Kosovo. In 2021, initial investigations were conducted and field surveys were carried out in the region of Rahovec in order to evaluate the presence of S. titanus in Kosovarian vineyards. The survey was established in seventeen vineyards in different locations and grapevine varieties. In the middle of June, in each vineyard chosen for investigation were settled yellow sticky traps for surveying and sampling of leafhoppers. All plantations were subjected to fungicide treatment and no insecticide treatment was applied for S. titanus. The captures on the yellow sticky traps indicated that the North American grapevine leafhopper was present in Kosovo. Its population was different in investigated vineyards. Of the seventeen vineyards monitored, in twelve of them was captured the FDp vector, two sticky traps were damaged, and in three vineyards was not captured any specimen of Scaphoideus titanus. An average, of two up to forty-nine specimens of S. titanus per trap were collected over the surveyed period from the beginning of June until the end of September 2021. These results show only the distribution of S. titanus in the surveyed area. Furthermore, the presence of the North American grapevine leafhopper in Kosovo is an alert for urgent phytosanitary control of the quarantine phytoplasma Flavescence dorée (FD).