Application of powerful and effective in vitro tools to detect aggressiveness variation between two Fusarium head blight populations subjected and not-subjected to prolonged post-anthesis moisture

Sakr, Nachaat and Kurdali, Fawaz and Attar, Jalal (2026) Application of powerful and effective in vitro tools to detect aggressiveness variation between two Fusarium head blight populations subjected and not-subjected to prolonged post-anthesis moisture. ACTA PHYTOPATHOLOGICA ET ENTOMOLOGICA HUNGARICA, 61 (1). pp. 65-82. ISSN 0238-1249

Text 038-article-p65.pdf - Published Version Restricted to Repository staff only Download (946kB)

Abstract

Extended post-anthesis moisture largely enhances aggressiveness of Fusarium head blight (FHB) pathogens; however, no information is available if this aggressiveness increase arose only from humidity effect or humidity leads to changes in Fusarium fungi resulting in higher aggressiveness. To this end, we re-isolated 16 fungal cultures of four Fusarium species subjected to duration of spray-irrigation of 21 days and compared their in vitro aggressiveness with the same Fusarium fungi not-subjected to prolonged post-anthesis moisture, i.e. duration of spray-irrigation of 0/7 days. Differences in latent period (LP), area under disease progress curve (AUDPC) and coleoptile length reduction (CLR) were observed on wheat detached leaves and seedlings in the aggressiveness of Fusarium -moisture treatments relative to fungal-non-moisture treatments. Prolonged humidity application did increase Fusarium aggressiveness measured in vitro ; FHB subjected to duration of spray-irrigation of 21 days had significantly lesser LP and higher AUDPC and CLR in compared with FHB subjected to duration of spray-irrigation of 0/7 days. This is the first report showing that aggressiveness increase arises from pathogenic changes in Fusarium fungi enhanced under prolonged humidity conditions. When considering FHB disease prevention strategies, the environmental conditions in which fungi grow need to be taken into consideration.

Actions (login required)

Edit Item