Harel, Y.M., Department of Plant Pathology and Weed Research, Institute of Plant Protection, The Volcani Center, Agricultural Research Organization, Bet Dagan 50250, Israel
Elad, Y., Department of Plant Pathology and Weed Research, Institute of Plant Protection, The Volcani Center, Agricultural Research Organization, Bet Dagan 50250, Israel
Rav-David, D., Department of Plant Pathology and Weed Research, Institute of Plant Protection, The Volcani Center, Agricultural Research Organization, Bet Dagan 50250, Israel
Borenstein, M., Department of Plant Pathology and Weed Research, Institute of Plant Protection, The Volcani Center, Agricultural Research Organization, Bet Dagan 50250, Israel
Shulchani, R., Department of Plant Pathology and Weed Research, Institute of Plant Protection, The Volcani Center, Agricultural Research Organization, Bet Dagan 50250, Israel
Lew, B., Department of Growing, Production and Environmental Engineering, Institute of Agricultural Engineering, The Volcani Center, Agricultural Research Organization, Bet Dagan 50250, Israel
Graber, E.R., Department of Soil Chemistry, Plant Nutrition and Microbiology, Institute of Soil, Water and Environmental Sciences, The Volcani Center, Agricultural Research Organization, Bet Dagan 50250, Israel

Background and Aims: Various biochars added to soil have been shown to improve plant performance. Moreover, a wood biochar was found to induce tomato and pepper plant systemic resistance to two foliar fungal pathogens. The aim of this study was to explore the ability of wood biochar and greenhouse waste biochar to induce systemic resistance in strawberry plants against Botrytis cinerea, Colletotrichum acutatum and Podosphaera apahanis, and to examine at the molecular level some of their impacts on plant defense mechanisms. Methods: Disease development tests on plants grown on 1 or 3% biochar-amended potting mixture, and quantification of relative expression of 5 plant defense-related genes (FaPR1, Faolp2, Fra a3, Falox, and FaWRKY1) by real-time PCR were carried out. Results: Biochar addition to the potting medium of strawberry plants suppressed diseases caused by the three fungi, which have very different infection strategies. This suggests that biochar stimulated a range of general defense pathways, as confirmed by results of qPCR study of defense-related gene expression. Furthermore, primed-state of defense-related gene expression was observed upon infection by B. cinerea and P. aphanis. Conclusion: The ability of biochar amendment to promote transcriptional changes along different plant defense pathways probably contributes to its broad spectrum capacity for disease suppression. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.