Evaluation of Malaysian oil palm progenies for susceptibility, resistance or tolerance to Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. elaeidis and defence‐related gene expression in roots

Abstract

and b Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB), No. 6, Persiaran Institusi, Bandar Baru Bangi, Kajang, 43000 Selangor, MalaysiaVascular wilt of oil palm caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. elaeidis (Foe) is a devastating disease in West and Central Africa. As the oil palm industry in southeast Asia is still expanding, so is the oil palm germplasm collection through the importation of seed and pollen from Africa, the centre of diversity for Elaeis guineensis. There is a risk of inadvertent spread of the disease on contaminated seed or pollen. Regular re-evaluation of the reaction of currently grown palm genotypes towards Foe is clearly required for biosecurity. This study has demonstrated that four Malaysian oil palm progenies, three in current or recent commercial use, are highly susceptible to infection by at least one of two African isolates of Foe, representing different countries, aggressiveness and vegetative compatibility groups. Symptoms and reduction of palm growth generally reflected the extent and intensity of systemic colonization by Foe. Progeny PK 5463 expressed partial resistance to Foe isolate F3, but not to isolate 16F, displaying significantly milder symptoms and supporting less widespread vascular colonization. This relatively incompatible interaction was used to study expression of potential defence-related genes during root infection when compared to a susceptible palm-isolate combination. The only significant response was an early up-regulation of chitinase in resistant palms. The research revealed at least one progeny-isolate differential interaction, and the associated resistance expression suggests a component of tolerance, because colonization by Foe was systemic in both compatible and incompatible combinations.

Evaluation of Malaysian soils for Potential Suppressiveness of Fusarium Wilt of Oil Palm Caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. elaeidis

“…apii suppressive soil compared to 104 colonies in conducive soil [28]. Similar intereactions were reported by Flood et al [11] and Rusli et al [18]. On other note, high disease severity shown by clones in nonautoclaved Temang soil in Experiment 2 could be related to the low presence of putative endophytes in roots, lower stems and petioles of the seedlings.…”

“…Foe 16F was previously used by Institut de Recherches pour les Huiles et Oléagineux (IRHO) as their Fusarium wilt screening isolate [17]. The pathogen inoculum was prepared according [18]. 10 mL of spore suspension was applied with a sterile syringe onto the soil surface around the base of each palm.…”

“…Symptoms were measured at 3 month intervals and wilt index adapted from Varghese and detailed by Rusli was used to score the disease severity in each treatment [6,18].…”

Review: Omics and Strategic Yield Improvement in Oil Crops

“…An integration of these massive and complicated datasets using advanced bioinformatics tools will lead scientists to better understand the mechanisms of disease infection. A gene expression study of oil palm roots and Fusarium oxysporum was conducted to investigate defense-related genes in susceptible and tolerant oil palm varieties [209]. The same omics data integration method, coupled with knowledge of oil palm breeding and molecular breeding techniques, could be used to decipher susceptible/ tolerance levels of Fusarium wilt in oil palm.…”

Analysis of Genetic Diversity Amongst Fusarium spp. Associated with Root Rot of Apple

“…Fusarium rot on apples by Fusarium species (Riad and Zeiden, 2015), Sugarcane wilt by Fusarium sacchari (Lin et al, 2014), Pokkah Boeng in sugarcane by Fusarium moniliforme (Vishwakarma et al, 2013), Bakanae in rice by Fusarium fujikuroi (Jain et al, 2014), Oil palm wilt by Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. elaidis (Rusli et al, 2015), Panama disease by Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubensis (Zhang et al, 2013), are some important diseases caused by Fusarium spp.…”