Bioprospecting of Saprobe Fungi from the Semi‐Arid North‐East of Brazil for the Control of Anthracnose on Sorghum

Abstract

Anthracnose, caused by the hemiotrophic fungus Colletotrichum sublineolum, is one of the most important diseases affecting sorghum production worldwide. The main goal of this study was to select saprobe fungi from the semi‐arid north‐east of Brazil that could increase sorghum resistance to anthracnose and investigate this increased resistance at both physiological and biochemical levels. Plants were sprayed with Curvularia inaequalis, Gonytrichum macroladum, Memnoniella levispora, Pithomyces chartarum, Periconia hispidula, Phaeoisaria clematidia, Dictyochaeta heteroderae, Sarcopodium circinatum, Periconia byssoides, Moorella speciosa, Stachybotrys chartarum, Pseudobotrytis terrestres, Memnoniella echinata, Stachybotrys globosa and Gonytrichum clamydosporium 24 h before inoculation with C. sublineolum. Plants sprayed with water served as the control treatment. The area under the anthracnose progress curve was significantly reduced in comparison with the control treatment only for plants sprayed with C. inaequalis. Therefore, C. inaequalis was selected for physiological and biochemical evaluations. The peroxidases, chitinases and β‐1,3‐glucanases activities were significantly higher for plants sprayed with C. inaequalis and inoculated with C. sublineolum than for plants not sprayed with C. inaequalis and inoculated with C. sublineolum. There was no apparent decrease in the values of net carbon assimilation rate, stomatal conductance to water vapour or transpiration rate for plants sprayed with C. inaequalis and infected by C. sublineolum in comparison with plants not sprayed with C. inaequalis and infected by C. sublineolum. In conclusion, sorghum resistance against C. sublineolum infection was greatly potentiated by C. inaequalis without any apparent change in the photosynthetic capacity of the infected plants.

Breeding for anthracnose (Colletotrichum sublineolum Henn.) resistance in sorghum: challenges and opportunities

“…Colletotrichum graminicola is identified to be a fungal pathogen causing anthracnose of maize (Z. mays), while C. sublineola causes anthracnose disease of sorghum (Crouch and Beirn 2009). Anthracnose disease is observed in all sorghum growing areas of the world (Burrell et al, 2015;Costa et al, 2015;Resende et al, 2015;Patil et al, 2017) (Figure 3). The disease was first observed in Togo in the west Africa during 1902 (Thakur and Mathur 2000).…”

Antagonism of saprobe fungi from semiarid areas of the Northeast of Brazil against Sclerotinia sclerotiorum and biocontrol of soybean white mold

“…A. C. Almeida, Izabel, & Gusmão, 2011;Leão-Ferreira, Pascholati, Gusmão, & Castañeda Ruiz, 2013;Santa Izabel & Gusmão, 2018). Some of these saprobes were being used as potential biological control agents and resistance inducers (Resende, Milagres, Rezende, Aucique-Perez, & Rodrigues, 2015;Barros, Fonseca, Balbi-Peña, Pascholati, & Peitl, 2015;Rodríguez et al, 2016;Peitl et al, 2017;Ribeiro et al, 2018;Botrel et al, 2018).…”

Assessment of sorghum genetic resources of Ethiopia for anthracnose (Colletotrichum sublineolum Henn.) resistance and agronomic traits

“…There is a continuous need to identify new sources of resistance among available genetic stocks and landraces through artificial and natural inoculation for resistance breeding. This should be followed by genetic recombination and selection for effective disease management and to enhance sorghum productivity (Prom et al, ; Resende, Milagres, Rezende, Aucique‐Perez, & Rodrigues, ; Sharma, Upadhyaya, Manjunatha, Rao, & Thakur, ).…”