Fusarium Head Blight and Deoxynivalenol Accumulation of Barley in Eastern Canada: Cultivar Response and Correlation Analysis

Abstract

Fusarium head blight of barley (Hordeum vulgare) is a devastating disease in many countries. We undertook a study to identify barley cultivars, if any, that are resistant to Fusarium head blight and deoxynivalenol (DON) accumulation and to determine if DON concentration is correlated with other plant traits in Eastern Canada and China. Barley cultivars were grown in the field under artificial inoculation conditions at two locations (Charlottetown and Ottawa) in Canada during two summers and at Hangzhou in China during two winters. Seed samples were collected for DON analysis from the barley performance trial at five locations in Ontario. None of the 64 barley cultivars were immune to Fusarium head blight infection. Two-row cultivars, however, were significantly more resistant to Fusarium head blight infection and DON accumulation than six-row cultivars. Three cultivars (Island, AC Alberte, and Chevron) were found to be most resistant, as they were consistently low in Fusarium head blight incidence and DON concentration in both Eastern Canada and China. In six-row barley, DON concentration was correlated positively with Fusarium head blight incidence at both Charlottetown and Ottawa, and it was negatively correlated with plant height at Ottawa. DON concentration and heading date were not consistently correlated. Barley yellow dwarf and powdery mildew appeared to have very little effect on Fusarium head blight infection. Susceptibility to DON accumulation did not result in low yield under natural infection conditions in Ontario. Cultivar × location interactions for DON concentration, Fusarium head blight incidence, and heading date were significant.

Fungicides Application against Fusarium Head Blight in Wheat and Barley for Ensuring Food Safety

“…In Japanese barley cultivars, there is a strong association between row type and flowering type; most two-rowed cultivars are cleistogamous, whereas most six-rowed cultivars are chasmogamous. In most cases, the former are relatively resistant and the latter are susceptible to FHB (Yoshida et al, 2005), consistent with the general observation that tworowed types are more resistant than six-rowed types (Choo et al, 2004;Heta & Hiura, 1963;McCallum, et al, 2004;Steffenson, 2003;Takeda & Heta, 1989& Zhou et al, 1991. Cleistogamy contributes to the resistance of barley cultivars to FHB, at least for infection that occurs at anthesis (Yoshida et al, 2005).…”

Effect of harvest date on barley grain contamination with Fusarium spp. and deoxynivalenol in northeastern Ontario

“…Deoxynivalenol is the major mycotoxin in FHBinfected kernels and is a food and feed safety concern for barley in eastern Canada (Choo et al 2004). The DON concentration found in the present study was low and below the Canadian legislative limit of 1.0 mg kg -1 for swine, young calves and lactating dairy animals (FAO 2003), likely as a result of the low incidence of F. graminearum, the most important *, **Significant at P < 0.05 and P < 0.01 levels, respectively.…”

“…Current research on FHB management in barley in Canada has been focussing mainly on the control of F. graminearum and DON, recognized as the primary causal species of FHB and mycotoxin, respectively (Tekauz et al 2000;Choo et al 2004). Little attention has been given to the presence of other Fusarium spp.…”

Impact de la date de récolte sur la teneur en désoxynivalénol (DON) des grains et la productivité de l'orge

“…Ainsi, le choix du cultivar, le type de travail du sol, le pre´ce´dent cultural sont autant de facteurs qui peuvent influencer le contenu en DON des re´coltes (Dill-Macky et Jones 2000; Schaafsma et al 2001;Choo et al 2004;Edwards 2004;Fernandez et al 2007;Pageau et al 2008). Afin de pre´venir la croissance des champignons et le de´veloppement des toxines, le grain devrait eˆtre re´colte´lorsque son taux d'humidite´est le moins e´leveṕ ossible (Schro¨der 2004).…”