Fusarium Head Blight Reactions and Accumulation of Deoxynivalenol (DON) and Some of its Derivatives in Kernels of Wheat, Triticale and Rye

Abstract

Fifty‐three commercially grown cultivars and germplasm lines of winter triticale (n = 18), wheat (n = 13), and rye (n = 5) and spring triticale (n = 8), wheat (n = 7) and rye (n = 2) were inoculated at mid anthesis with a spore suspension consisting of a mixture of Fusarium culmorum, Fusarium avenaceum and Fusarium graminearum isolates of known toxinogenic activity. Reactions to Fusarium head blight were measured as disease severity, reductions of kernel number/head, kernel weight/head and 1000 kernel weight, number of Fusarium‐damaged kernels and kernel content of deoxynivalenol (DON) and its acetyl‐derivatives 3‐AcDON, 15‐AcDON, and moniliformin. None of the cereal genotypes was completely resistant to Fusarium head blight. Wheat suffered from the largest kernel weight reductions, and accumulated the largest amounts of deoxynivalenol (up to 39.5 mg/kg) and 3AcDON (up to 6.0 mg/kg) in kernels. Deoxynivalenol was not detected in grain samples of winter rye cv. Dańkowskie Z?ote, and spring rye cv. Ludowe. 15‐AcDON was only detected in genotypes of triticale, and 3AcDON only in a few genotypes of winter wheat and rye. Moniliformin was detected at low concentrations (up to 0.092 mg/kg) in kernels of some genotypes selected for the mycotoxin analysis. A moderately strong Pearson correlation was found between head blight severity parameters and the accumulation of deoxynivalenol and its derivatives in grain of the cereal genotypes studied. Fusarium head blight severity parameters were correlated with the percentage of Fusarium‐damaged kernels and reductions of yield components. However, some head blight‐susceptible genotypes realized their potential yields, but accumulated high levels of mycotoxins in kernels. Both Fusarium head blight resistant and susceptible genotypes of the three cereal species accumulated deoxynivalenol in kernels. This finding suggests that the system regulating deoxynivalenol accumulation may be independent of Fusarium head blight reaction.

Cereal resistance to Fusarium head blight and possibilities of its improvement through breeding

“…Lemmens et al (2004) found out that good correlations between AUDPC and DON content are present at low to intermediate disease levels. Both FDG and reduction in thousand grain weight reflecting the kernel infection can be considered valuable traits (Šíp et al 2002), but FDG is more frequently used as an indicator of FHB resistance (Arseniuk et al 1999;Ittu et al 2000;Wiśniewska et al 2002;Lemmens et al 2003;Mesterházy et al 2005). A new method for the evaluation of FHB infection with respect to the plant phenological stage called REML (a statistical method using a mixed model) was recently published by Emrich et al (2008) in order to avoid an unintended selection for late-heading genotypes when evaluating FHB infection in wheat.…”

Resistance of winter wheat varieties registered in the Czech Republic to mycotoxin accumulation in grain following inoculation with Fusarium culmorum

“…It was shown in different experiments (e.g. Arseniuk et al 1999;Ittu et al 2000;Lemmens et al 2003;Šíp et al 2007) that particularly the determination of the percentage of Fusarium damaged grains (FDG) appeared to be useful from these aspects. Close correlations between DON content and FDG were also revealed in the experiments of Mesterházy et al (2005), however, this research demonstrated the importance of measuring both FDG and DON in the breeding and selection of resistant germplasm and varieties.…”

Influence of localities and winter wheat cultivars on deoxynivalenol accumulation and disease damage by Fusarium culmorum

“…The cultivars with total resistance to FHB are not avaiable, but the significant differences between cultivars existes. There were found out the differencies in FHB in Slovakia (Šrobárová & Vašková 1987) and in mycotoxin DON production (Arseniuk et al 1999;Mesterházy et al 1999;Perkowski et al 2002). We have confirmed the obtained results also among Slovakian cultivars in experiments for both types of resistance.…”