Early blight caused by Alternaria solani is a highly destructive disease of potatoes. Control of early blight mainly relies on the use of preventive fungicide treatments. Because of their high efficacy, azoxystrobin and other quinone outside inhibitors (QoIs) are commonly used to manage early blight. However, loss of sensitivity to QoIs has previously been reported for A. solani in the United States. Two hundred and three A. solani field isolates collected from 81 locations in Germany between 2005 and 2011 were screened for the presence of the F129L mutation in the cytochrome b gene; of these, 74 contained the F129L mutation. Sequence analysis revealed the occurrence of two structurally different cytb genes, which differed in the presence (genotype I) or absence (genotype II) of an intron, with genotype I being the most prevalent (63% of isolates). The F129L mutation was detected only in genotype II isolates, where it occurred in 97%. Sensitivity to azoxystrobin and pyraclostrobin was determined in conidial germination assays. All isolates possessing the F129L mutation had reduced sensitivity to azoxystrobin and, to a lesser extent, to pyraclostrobin. Early blight disease severity on plants treated with azoxystrobin was significantly higher for A. solani isolates with reduced fungicide sensitivity in the conidial germination assay compared with sensitive isolates. Data suggest an accumulation of F129L isolates in the German A. solani population over the years 2009-2011. It is assumed that the application of QoIs has selected for the occurrence of F129L mutations, which may contribute to loss of fungicide efficacy.
Epidemics of early blight caused by Alternaria spp. can cause significant economic damage to potato production if not adequately controlled. In order to improve control of Alternaria spp. in potato, studies were conducted to identify the optimal fungicide strategy and, if possible, to reduce the number of fungicide applications per growing season. Therefore, a disease-threshold-based framework was tested to define the optimal timing of fungicide application. The initiation and subsequent applications of fungicides were based on increases in disease incidence or severity. Adequate disease control was achieved by a three-time application with azoxystrobin, given that the applications were carried out at pivotal times in the epidemic. Targeted applications of fungicides reduced the number of sprayings required to protect starch yield. Results indicate that early blight can be effectively managed by using fungicide application thresholds based on disease progress.
Breeding for resistance is a key task to control Fusarium head blight (FHB), a devastating disease of small cereals leading to economic losses and grain contamination with mycotoxins harmful for humans and animals. In the present work, FHB resistance of the six-rowed spring barley 'Chevron' to FHB in Germany was compared with those of adapted German spring barley cultivars. Both under natural infection conditions and after spray inoculation with conidia of Fusarium culmorum, F. sporotrichioides, and F. avenaceum under field conditions, Chevron showed a high level of quantitative resistance to the infection and contamination of grain with diverse mycotoxins. This indicates that Chevron is not only a little susceptible to deoxynivalenol-producing Fusarium spp. but also to Fusarium spp. producing type A trichothecenes and enniatins. Monitoring the initial infection course of F. culmorum on barley lemma tissue by confocal laser-scanning microscopy provided evidence that FHB resistance of Chevron is partially mediated by a preformed penetration resistance, because direct penetration of floral tissue by F. culmorum was observed rarely on Chevron but was common on susceptible genotypes. Alternatively, F. culmorum penetrated Chevron lemma tissue via stomata, which was unusual for susceptible genotypes. We generated double-haploid barley populations segregating for the major FHB resistance quantitative trait loci (QTL) Qrgz-2H-8 of Chevron. Subsequently, we characterized these populations by spray inoculation with conidia of F. culmorum and F. sporotrichioides. This suggested that Qrgz-2H-8 was functional in the genetic background of European elite barley cultivars. However, the degree of achieved resistance was very low when compared with quantitative resistance of the QTL donor Chevron, and the introgression of Qrgz-2H-8 was not sufficient to mediate the cellular resistance phenotype of Chevron in the European backgrounds.
Fusarium head blight (FHB) of small cereals is a disease of global importance with regard to economic losses and mycotoxin contamination harmful to human and animal health. In Germany, FHB is predominantly associated with wheat and F. graminearum is recognised as the major causal agent of the disease, but little is known about FHB of barley. Monitoring of the natural occurrence of FHB on Bavarian barley revealed differences for individual Fusarium spp. in incidence and severity of grain infection between years and between spring and winter barley. Parallel measurement of fungal DNA content in grain and mycotoxin content suggested the importance of F. graminearum in winter barley and of F. langsethiae in spring barley for FHB. The infection success of these two species was associated with certain weather conditions and barley flowering time. Inoculation experiments in the field revealed different effects of five Fusarium spp. on symptom formation, grain yield and mycotoxin production. A significant association between fungal infection of grain and mycotoxin content was observed following natural or artificial infection with the type B trichothecene producer F. culmorum, but not with the type A trichothecene-producing species F. langsethiae and F. sporotrichioides. Trichothecene type A toxin contamination also occurred in the absence of significant damage to grain and did not necessarily promote fungal colonisation.
Potato early blight and brown spot are important fungal diseases responsible for premature defoliation and yield loss of potato. Pathogens considered to be involved in leaf necrosis are Alternaria solani and A. alternata, respectively. Both diseases are commonly characterized by the visualization of leaf lesions. Current detection and identification methods for Alternaria species rely primarily on cultural and morphological characteristics, the assessment of which is time-consuming and not always suitable. Sensitive, reliable methods for estimating infection severity are therefore desirable. In this study, an Alternaria-specific real-time PCR assay was developed using primers based on internal transcribed spacers (ITS) 1 and 2. The assays facilitated species detection and clearly discriminated between A. solani and A. alternata. The use of realtime PCR allowed quantitative estimation of fungal biomass in plant tissues. Detection sensitivities were in the range of >100 fg. Real-time PCR applications used to accurately assess the extent of colonization by Alternaria spp. during disease development are reported here for the first time. Additionally, Alternaria genomic DNA levels were verified not only in potato leaves showing different levels of disease progress, but also in symptomless leaves. This assay provides a useful tool to quantify pathogen levels during initial latent stages of infection and will thus help in the early detection and quantification of Alternaria spp..
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