Characterization of the Relationships between Wheat Cultivars, Fusarium Head Blight, and Mycoflora Grains

Abstract

Stored wheat grains are colonized by a wide range of saprophytic and pathogenic fungi. Contamination by mycotoxigenic species like Fusarium spp. raise concern about the food safety of the commodity. Different environmental and genetic factors govern colonization. The present work studies the relationships between the wheat variety and the resistance against Fusarium head blight (FHB) among the diversity of grain colonizers. Five Swiss and fi ve Polish varieties were planted in an experimental site, and the grains were harvested and stored according to a unifi ed protocol in order to avoid contamination during and after harvest. In parallel, the resistance of the varieties was established by conducting trials at two other experimental sites with artifi cial infections. Overall, about 18 fungal taxa were identifi ed on the grains from the plot trial. Results show signifi cant differences in the presence and abundance of fungal species between the varieties. Colonization, in particular with Fusarium spp., was not correlated with FHB resistance. The experiments demonstrate that the factor variety can infl uence the colonization of wheat grains by fungi. Future research must help to better understand the plant traits that govern the differential colonization. These fi ndings should be considered in future studies on wheat storage and food safety.

The seeds of success: release from fungal attack on seeds may influence the invasiveness of alien Impatiens

“…1 Localities of the sampled populations of Impatiens glandulifera and I. balfourii on the Swiss-Italian border and saprotrophs (Stone et al 2000). Alternaria alternata, Aspergillus niger, Phoma leveillei, Penicillium, and Trichoderma are also classified as secondary pathogens (McRoberts and Lennard 1996;Stone et al 2000;Tekaia and Latgé 2005;Aveskamp et al 2008;Pusz et al 2016). Correlation tests revealed that the number of colonies of C. cladosporioides (secondary pathogen, saprotroph) in non-disinfected seeds correlated negatively with the combined number of colonies of true pathogen species (r S = -0.528, p \ 0.001, N = 36).…”

“…The seeds were inhabited by 14 fungal species, 13 of which were isolated from non-disinfected seeds (Table 2). Four of them were true pathogens of seeds: Fusarium culmorum, F. oxysporum, F. sporotrichoides, and Giberella avenacea (Lemańczyk and Sadowski 2002;Schaafsma et al 2005;Kordas et al 2015;Gołębiowska et al 2016;Pusz et al 2016). Disinfected seeds were attacked by only 6 species (Table 3), only one of which (Cladosporium herbarum) was not found earlier in the non-disinfected seeds.…”

“…We focused on the seeds. The germination behavior of alien species may influence their invasiveness (Gioria and Pyšek 2017), and it has been shown that fungal pathogens decrease the vigor of seeds (e.g., the genera Fusarium or Rhizoctonia; Lemańczyk and Sadowski 2002;Kordas et al 2015;Pusz et al 2016). One paper suggests that alien plants introduced to the United States from Europe are infected by 84% fewer fungi than in their natural range, which may enhance their invasiveness (Mitchell and Power 2003).…”

Communities of Microscopic Fungi in Dead Spruce in Relation to the Season and Degree of Wood Decay in Poland’s Karkonosze Mountains

“…These fungi may also constitute an element of the mycoflora that acts as an inhibitor of natural cycles of renewal, since they pose a threat to seedlings and young trees [9], as well as herbaceous plants [38]. Nevertheless, in environments that experience low human disturbance, Fusarium fungi are a regular component of plant communities and, unlike in agricultural crops or nurseries, their incidence is not of epidemic proportion [47].…”

Biohazards in International Road Transport Logistics in the Polish Part of the European Union’s Eastern Border

“…Even without the occurrence of bioterrorist activities, food contamination is a serious problem [14][15]. Every year in the United States it is the cause of more than 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations, and 5,000 deaths.…”