Evaluation of PSP1 biostimulant on Fusarium graminearum-wheat pathosystem: impact on disease parameters, grain yield, and grain quality.

BACKGROUND: Plant defense elicitors are valuable tools in sustainable agriculture, providing an environmentally friendly and effective means of enhancing plant defense and promoting plant health. Fusarium head blight (FHB) is one of the most important fungal diseases of cereal crops worldwide. The PSP1 is a novel biopesticide formulated based on an elicitor, the extracellular protein AsES, from the fungus Sarocladium strictum. The present work aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of PSP1 in controlling FHB under field conditions. Experiments were conducted during three consecutive growing seasons (2019, 2020, and 2021). Three biostimulant treatments were tested in different physiological stages (from late tillering to heading stage), and FHB inoculations were performed at anthesis. Disease parameters, seed parameters, grain yield, and grain quality parameters were evaluated. RESULTS: Depending on the year and the genotype, reductions in disease incidence (up to 11%) and disease severity (up to 5%) were reported, although these differences could not be attributed to the use of the PSP1 biostimulant. Occasional improvements in seed parameters and grain quality were observed, suggesting that early treatments could work better than late treatments, probably due to early activation/priming of defense response mechanisms. However, more studies are deemed necessary. CONCLUSION: The use of PSP1 biostimulant in commercial wheat crops could be a biological alternative or complement to traditional chemical fungicides to manage FHB. The reduced environmental impact and the potential benefits in grain yield and quality are other reasons that can generate new adherents of this technology in worldwide agriculture systems in the coming years. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry.

Resistance of Fusarium poae in Arabidopsis leaves requires mainly functional JA and ET signaling pathways.

Fusarium poae has been considered as a minor species among those that cause the FHB disease but in recent years several researchers have documented a high frequency of occurrence in several crops. We evaluated the ability of F. poae to produce symptoms in A. thaliana leaves. Moreover, we analyzed the defense of A. thaliana against F. poae using SA, JA, and ET mutants and we monitored the expression level of genes involved in the main signaling pathways related to plant defense. Symptoms were observed in the inoculated leaves demonstrating the ability of F. poae to infect A. thaliana leaves. Moreover, the npr1-1 mutants presented low symptoms compared to Col-0, etr2-1, and coi1-1 and that the coi1-1 mutant was the most susceptible genotypes followed by etr2-1 genotypes. The RT-PCR revealed that PDF1.2, CHI/PR3, and ERF1, three important JA-ET responsive genes and NPR1 and PR1, which are regulated by SA signaling, were expressed upon F. poae inoculation. Our results suggest that JA and ET could play a key role in Arabidopsis leaves defense against F. poae representing the first evaluation of the response of the main A. thaliana phytohormones involved in plant defense in the presence of F. poae.

Trichothecene genotypes and production profiles of Fusarium graminearum isolates obtained from barley cultivated in Argentina.

Fusarium graminearum is one of the most important pathogens isolated from small cereal grains with Fusarium Head Blight symptoms. The presence of this fungus is often linked to the occurrence of several mycotoxins in barley and wheat. The aim of our study was to characterize trichothecene genotypes and production profiles of F. graminearum sensu stricto isolates obtained from barley grains in Argentina. A total of 110 F. graminearum s.s. isolates were analyzed by PCR assays to predict deoxynivalenol (DON), 15-acetyldeoxynivalenol (15-ADON), 3-acetyldeoxynivalenol (3-ADON) and nivalenol (NIV) production, and all isolates were found to belong to the same molecular 15-ADON genotype. Trichothecene production in autoclaved rice was analyzed by using gas chromatography (GC) and confirmed by GC-MS. Of the 110 isolates, 95% were able to produce DON, 71% produced 15-ADON, 63% 3-ADON and 52% NIV. With the exception of a single isolate, all isolates that produced NIV, also produced DON. However, the NIV production was very low, ranging from 0.13 to 0.30 µg/g. Six different production profiles of DON and its acetyl-derivatives were detected, the predominant being simultaneous production of DON, 3-ADON and 15-ADON, followed by DON production, and DON and 15-ADON co-production. This work is the first attempt to characterize the trichothecene genotypes and production profiles of F. graminearum s.s. isolates from Argentinean barley.