Aggressiveness of four Fusarium head blight species on wheat cultivars

Abstract

Aggressiveness of four Fusarium head blight species (F. culmorum, F. solani, F. verticillioides and F. equiesti) was studied on six Syrian wheat cultivars under controlled conditions. Two aggressiveness criteria: diseased-head severity (DHS, Fusarium infection) and disease development (DD, Fusarium spread) were visually estimated as percentage of heads showing Fusarium symptoms in wheat cultivars at the soft dough stage. Results showed significant differences among fungal isolates and wheat cultivars for the two tested criteria. The mean values of DHS evaluations ranged from 33.27 to 45.49% among fungal isolates, and from 29.62 to 42.22% among tested cultivars. The mean DD rating varied from 25.58 to 35.43% among fungal isolates, and from 25.33 to 34.01% among tested cultivars. Results in the current research highlighted that the level of resistance in Syrian cultivars to Fusarium species is characterized with low to moderate DHS and DD evaluations (%). Also, the results were comparable with those previously obtained using the same fungal isolates and wheat cultivars in vitro. The current study confirmed the suitability of in vitro method to be used as fast and reliable test to analyze aggressiveness in Fusarium species.