CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Abstract: When a pathogenic fungus colonizes and infects a plant, a series of biologic processes begins, being modified the integrity of the plant, as a result of the hyphal growth through cells, tissue and organs. From wild type or genetically modified organisms, several aspects of infection can be studied, such as hyphal growth, morphogenesis in germinating spores, visualization of enzymatic hydrolysis, production of mycotoxins, inhibition of the hyphal growth by antagonist microorganisms, use of natural substances or by modification of the host resistance, as well as transcriptoma analysis and expression of genes that regulate the infection. Three of the world?s most important crops, wheat, rice and maize, are susceptible to a number of Fusarium species. Fusarium head blight (FHB) on small-grain cereals is one of the most devastating diseases. Severe epidemics have occurred all over the world, altering quality parameters of grains, their weight, carbohydrate and protein composition and they can result in contamination with fungal toxins such as deoxynivalenol (DON). Several species can cause head blight, though F. graminearum is the predominant pathogen in most regions. F. graminearum is one of the most intensively studied fungal plant pathogens, therefore different aspects have been studied: pathogenicity, population genetics, evolution and genomics. Diverse methodologies are applied to analyze these aspects, being microscopic techniques the tools that complement other methodologies, allowing the observation from bio-images of the changes produced. In this report, a review of microscopy techniques applied in the interpretation of interaction Fusarium graminearum-wheat crop will be carried out.

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