Abstract

STENGLEIN, Sebastián A.; DINOLFO, M. Inés; BONGIORNO, Fabricio  and  MORENO, M. Virginia. Response of wheat (Triticum spp.) and barley (Hordeum vulgare) to Fusarium poae. Agrociencia [online]. 2012, vol.46, n.3, pp.299-306. ISSN 2521-9766.

Fusarium head blight is an important disease attacking wheat (Triticum spp.), barley (Hordeum vulgare) and other grains worldwide. Among the Fusarium species causing this disease, Fusarium poae is less often implicated, but is a fungus of increasingly recognized importance and it is 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 F. poae isolates, in order to observe contamination by this fungus in the grains. The analyses were performed during 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 significant (p≤0.05) only in 2008. Although the number of re-isolated isolates in wheat was greater than the number of samples with observable symptoms, no significant correlations were found. However, there were correlations in barley and the linear regression analyses allow suggesting 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 than the number with observable disease symptoms, and therefore the real extent of contamination with F. poae is currently underestimated and should be considered for food risk analysis in the near future.

Keywords : disease symptoms; Fusarium poae; grain contamination.

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