Response of wheat (Triticum spp.) and barley (Hordeum vulgare) to Fusarium poae

STENGLEIN S.A.; DINOLFO M.I.; BONGIORNO F.; MORENO M.V.

AGROCIENCIA

COLEGIO DE POSTGRADUADOS

Año: 2012 vol. 46 p. 299 - 306

1405-3195

Fusarium head blight is an important disease principally attacking wheat, barley and other grains worldwide. Among the Fusarium species causing this disease, F. poae is less often implicated, but is a fungus of increasingly recognized importance and it has been associated with human and animal toxicoses. The aim of this study was to examine the responses of wheat and barley varieties to inoculation by different Fusarium poae isolates, in order to observe contamination by this fungus in the grains. The experimental analyses were performed during 3 years (2008, 2009, and 2010) under natural conditions at the Facultad de Agronomía de Azul-UNCPBA, province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Statistical analyses were carried out and the identities of re-isolated isolates were tested by a primer-specific PCR reaction and by comparing DNA-ISSR amplifications. Differences among varieties in fungal symptoms were statistically significant only in 2008. Although the number of re-isolated isolates in wheat varieties was greater that the number of samples with observable symptoms, no correlations were found. However, we found correlations in barley and the linear regression analyses allow us to suggest that for each grain with visual symptoms, two barley grains could contain the fungus. Thus it can be concluded that the real number of grains contaminated with F. poae is significantly higher that the number with observable disease symptoms, and that the real extend of contamination with F. poae is currently underestimated therefore and should be considered for food risk analysis in the near future. Key words: Disease symptoms, Fusarium poae, grain contamination.