Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

cereals. FHB is associated with several pathogen species, including Fusarium graminearum, Fusarium avenaceum, and Fusarium culmorum. In oats, the most frequent causative agents are F graminearum, F. poae, F. langsethiae, F. avenaceum, and F. culmorum. These pathogens interact under field conditions developing different outputs. As oat is one of the main cereal crops cultivated in Sweden, survey of fungal isolates to identify putative FHB causal or suppressor agents is crucial for effective disease management in agricultural systems. In this study, different oats cultivar from 11 distinct fields in Sweden were used to study the mycobiome associated with oat panicle. More than 300 isolates were obtained from different oat cultivars, which were then underwent morphotyping and molecular identification by PCR and fragment sequencing. Results suggest that FHB causing species were not present in the sample fields, despite some ears showing bleaching symptoms reminiscent of the disease. We found no clear correlation between West and East location but samples from the north Sweden differed markedly from samples from the south and the central Sweden. Furthermore, 116 oat cultivars were phenotyped for resistance F. avenaceum and F. culmorum isolates from Sweden. Based on this large dataset, our results clearly suggest that the formation of a F. avenaceum / F. culmorum complex leads to increased susceptibility to FHB, with distinct patterns showing where resistance is broken.