Effective chemical protection against the maize late wilt causal agent, Harpophora maydis, in the field

Degani, Ofir; Dor, Shlomit; Movshowitz, Daniel; Fraidman, Eyal; Rabinovitz, Onn; Graph, Shaul

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0208353

Cited by 29 publications

(66 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Although the disease can be controlled using fungicides (Degani et al, 2014(Degani et al, , 2018, environmentally friendly methods to restrict crop diseases are being encouraged in European agriculture. As such, maize late wilt is mainly controlled by means of genetic resistance, but this option is limited by the existence of a diversity of aggressive strains within M. maydis populations (Zeller et al, 2002;Ortiz-Bustos et al, 2016) and, in some cases, by a partial expression of resistance, which greatly depends on environmental conditions (Ortiz-Bustos et al, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental and irrigation conditions can mask the effect of Magnaporthiopsis maydis on growth and productivity of maize

et al. 2019

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Maize production in temperate countries is threatened by late wilt, caused by Magnaporthiopsis maydis. Plant infection occurs early after sowing, but symptoms appear from flowering onwards. The disease is mainly controlled by genetic resistance, which is often partially expressed in the field. Development of disease symptoms is also highly dependent on environmental conditions. This study looked at whether production and growth of susceptible maize are affected by M. maydis under environmental conditions that are suboptimal for disease development. In addition, the effect of water availability on disease development under optimal conditions was determined. Pot experiments were conducted in an open‐air enclosure in 2013, 2015 and 2016. Under unfavourable conditions for disease (low air temperature and relatively high air humidity), aboveground symptoms did not appear in the plants despite growth and production variables being clearly altered by the fungus. When air temperatures and humidity were optimal for disease development (air temperatures relatively high and humidity rather low), leaf symptoms on inoculated plants became apparent but with secondary importance compared to decreases in growth and production. The pathogen also affected the root:aboveground biomass ratio to a greater extent when the plants were under good water conditions than under deficit irrigation. Under optimal conditions and with good soil water content, the infected crop may end its cycle without symptoms, with the disease undetected, although reductions in yield and aboveground biomass can occur.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental and irrigation conditions can mask the effect of Magnaporthiopsis maydis on growth and productivity of maize

et al. 2019

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“…It appears that the biological seed coating using mycorrhizal fungi may have the same benefit with the additional advantage of improving nutrition supply (the original aim of this seed coating according to the manufacturer). This should be examined in a future study that would combine the biological seed coating with other treatments, as was done lately for chemical seed coatings [28].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…DNA extraction. Total DNA preparations were obtained from tissue samples of axenically grown maize tissue and from maize tissue known to be infected with M. maydis using the Extract-N-amp plant PCR kit (Sigma, Rehovot, Israel) according to the manufacturer's instructions, or using an alternative method according to the procedure of [45] with slight modifications [28]. According to the modified Murray and Thompson procedure, after grinding the tissue with 4 mL cetyltriammonium bromide (CTAB) buffer (0.7 M NaC1, 1% CTAB, 50 mM Tris-HC1 pH 8.8, 10 mM EDTA, and 1% 2-mercaptoethanol), 1.2 mL from the mixture was incubated for 20 min at 65 • C. The samples were then centrifuged at 14,000 rpm for 5 min at room temperature (24 • C).…”

Section: Magnaporthiopsis Maydis Detection and Identificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Fewer ears are produced, and kernels that form are poorly developed [9] and may be infested with the pathogen. Seed quantity [27] and quality [28] are correlated negatively to disease severity. The pathogen reacts differently to various environmental conditions [29,30] and is considered to be a poor competitor to other micro-organisms in the soil [23].…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Lately, the former reports on potential secondary plant hosts were confirmed for M. maydis, Lupinus termis (lupine) [33], and cotton [22], and new hosts-watermelon and Setaria viridis (common name green foxtail)-were introduced [34].Some agricultural [30,35], biological [11,[36][37][38], and chemical controls [10,24,39,40] were able to reduce the pathogen's impact on commercial production. A combined treatment of fungicide seed coating and drip irrigation was recently demonstrated to be a cost-effective and powerful treatment to protect sensitive maize hybrids, even in heavily infested soils [28]. However, at present in Israel, late wilt disease is controlled by a more traditional management approach through the development of genetically resistant corn lines.…”

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Methods for Studying Magnaporthiopsis maydis, the Maize Late Wilt Causal Agent

et al. 2019

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Late wilt, a destructive vascular disease of maize caused by the fungus Magnaporthiopsis maydis, is characterized by relatively fast wilting of maize plants closely before the physiological maturity stage. Previously, traditional microbiology-based methods have been used to isolate the pathogen and to characterize its traits. More recently, several molecular methods have been developed, enabling accurate and sensitive examination of the pathogen spread within the host. Here, we review the methods developed in the past 10 years in Israel, which include new or modified microbial and molecular techniques to identify, monitor, and study M. maydis in controlled environments and in the field. The assays inspected are exemplified with new findings and include microbial isolation methods, microscopic and PCR or qPCR identification, spore germination evaluation, root pathogenicity assay, M. maydis hyphae or filtrate effects on grain germination and sprout development, and a field assay. These diagnostic protocols enable rapid and reliable detection and identification of the pathogen in plants and seeds and studying the pathogenesis of M. maydis in susceptible and relatively resistant maize cultivars in a contaminated field. Moreover, these techniques are important for studying the population structure, and for future development of new strategies to restrict the disease's outburst and spread.The fungus reproduces asexually, and no perfect stage has been identified [5]. To date, late wilt has been reported in about 10 countries, with significant economic losses in Egypt [6], India [7], Spain and Portugal [8], and Israel [9]. In Israel, the sweet maize growth area covered about 2800 ha and yielded almost 57,000 metric tons of grains (data from the Israel Organization of Crops and Vegetables, 2017). Late wilt is considered to be the most destructive disease in maize-growing areas in this country, with up to 100% infection and total yield loss reported in some fields [10]. In Egypt, the cultivated maize area covered about 880,000 ha and yielded almost 7.2 million metric tons of grains [11], with a degree of loss that may reach up to 80% in infested fields [12]. The Egyptian, Indian, and Hungarian isolates of M. maydis differ in morphology, pathogenicity, and route of infection [13]. For example, in Egypt, four clonal lineages of M. maydis isolates show diversity in amplification fragment length polymorphism (AFLP), colonization ability, and virulence on maize [14][15][16][17][18]. In Spain and southern Portugal, 14 isolates of M. maydis were analyzed by inoculating maize-susceptible cultivars [19]. One of the isolates was more aggressive, caused significant weight reductions of both roots and above-ground parts.Late wilt disease is characterized by relatively burst-wilting symptoms of maize plants, typically two weeks after the R1 fertilization growth stage (70 days after sowing) at the R3 growth stage (corn development described by [20]). The pathogen can negatively affect seedling emergence and cause seedling root necrosis...

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