Infectious full-length clones of Beet necrotic yellow vein virus (BNYVV) and Beet soil-borne mosaic virus (BSBMV), both genus Benyvirus, were used for fluorescent labelling with the objective to study their interaction in coinfection and superinfection experiments. Fluorescent labelling was achieved by replacing a part of the RNA2 encoded coat protein read-through domain with either GFP or mRFP fluorescent marker proteins. This resulted in a translational fusion comprising the coat and the fluorescent protein. The labelled viruses were infectious and moved systemically in Nicotiana benthamiana, producing wild-type-like symptoms. Virus particles could be observed by electron microscopy, demonstrating that the viral read-through domain is dispensable for particle formation. Coinfection experiments revealed a spatial separation of differentially labelled populations of both identical and different Benyvirus species after N. benthamiana agro-inoculation. Identical observations were obtained when Tobacco rattle virus (TRV) was differentially labelled and used for coinfection. In contrast, coinfections of BSBMV with Potato virus X (PVX) or TRV resulted in many co-infected cells lacking spatial separation. Micro-projectile co-bombardment of N. benthamiana leaves revealed that two differently labelled populations of the same virus co-infected only a few cells before starting to separate. In superinfection experiments with N. benthamiana, BSBMV and BNYVV were unable to establish a secondary infection in plants that were previously infected with BNYVV or BSBMV. Taken together, this is the first work to describe the interaction between two economically important Benyviruses using fluorescence-labelled full-length clones.

Based on a 2-year field trial at two locations in Lower Saxony (Germany), 395 Fusarium isolates belonging to 13 species were collected from more than 3,000 sugar beet roots that were apparently healthy at harvest. In a comparative screen, subsamples were analyzed for Fusarium infection directly after harvest and after different storage conditions. Depending on the storage duration, a different species composition was observed. F. redolens was predominant in freshly harvested beets, while F. culmorum, F. cerealis, and F. graminearum comprised 50.0% (2006) and 84.8% (2007) of the Fusarium mycoflora of sugar beets subjected to long-term pile storage. Randomly selected isolates of all species detected were tested for pathogenicity to sugar beet, but only isolates of F. graminearum and F. sambucinum caused severe root symptoms. Overall, 34 isolates of all species detected were characterized for their mycotoxin profile in rice culture to determine potentially produced toxins for future analysis of sugar beet. A total of 26 Fusarium mycotoxins were detected by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, including trichothecenes, zearalenone, and especially high amounts of beauvericin, enniatins, and moniliformin. Further work is required to analyze the natural occurrence of these mycotoxins in sugar beet.

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Crop rotations with putative non-host crops such as sugar beet are often recommended to reduce Fusarium head blight (FHB) in cereals. However, recent observations have shown pathogenic, endophytic, and saprotrophic colonization of sugar beet with various Fusarium spp. Therefore, strains of seven species frequently isolated from sugar beet were tested for pathogenicity on wheat. Species-specific symptoms on heads and kernels were evaluated and the grains were analyzed for 20 mycotoxins with liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Fusarium graminearum, F. culmorum, and F. cerealis from sugar beet caused typical FHB symptoms and mycotoxin contamination with deoxynivalenol and nivalenol, while a high incidence of black point was observed in heads inoculated with F. tricinctum or F. equiseti. Black point kernels revealed 3.4 to 14.5 times higher mycotoxin concentrations than symptomless grains, containing enniatin B1 at 38,000 μg/kg, moniliformin at 4,900 μg/kg, and 2-amino-14,16-dimethyloctadecan-3-ol at 5,500 μg/kg, as well as monoacetoxyscirpenol at 2,600 μg/kg and nivalenol at 3,800 μg/kg. Monitoring of these latter two species in the field is hampered by the lack of typical head symptoms after infection. In further experiments, the impact of sugar beet residues on FHB severity and the correlation between mycotoxin contamination of cereal lots and the amount of black point have to be evaluated.

Sugar beet root rot diseases that occur during the cropping season or in storage are accompanied by high yield losses and a severe reduction of processing quality. The vast diversity of microorganism species involved in rot development requires molecular tools allowing simultaneous identification of many different targets. Therefore, a new microarray technology (ArrayTube) was applied in this study to improve diagnosis of sugar beet root rot diseases. Based on three marker genes (internal transcribed spacer, translation elongation factor 1 alpha, and 16S ribosomal DNA), 42 well-performing probes enabled the identification of prevalent field pathogens (e.g., Aphanomyces cochlioides), storage pathogens (e.g., Botrytis cinerea), and ubiquitous spoilage fungi (e.g., Penicillium expansum). All probes were proven for specificity with pure cultures from 73 microorganism species as well as for in planta detection of their target species using inoculated sugar beet tissue. Microarray-based identification of root rot pathogens in diseased field beets was successfully confirmed by classical detection methods. The high discriminatory potential was proven by Fusarium species differentiation based on a single nucleotide polymorphism. The results demonstrate that the ArrayTube constitute an innovative tool allowing a rapid and reliable detection of plant pathogens particularly when multiple microorganism species are present.