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SESSION 3: PATHOGENESIS – EPIDEMIOLOGY AND POPULATION
GENETICS
P64 - Plant pathogenic fungal interactions in oats
A.-K. Kolseth, P. Persson
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Crop Production Ecology, P.O. Box 7043,
SE 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden
E-mail: anna-karin.kolseth@slu.se
In Sweden 20% of all the small grain cereals cultivated is oats, a crop that up until
now has been considered to be at good break crop in crop rotations including
other small grain cereals. In recent years cereal infections with Fusarium
langsethiae and F. graminearum in oats have been severe and problematic for
the farmers, mainly lowering the quality of the yield through mycotoxin production.
F. langsethiae is found more often in oats than other cereals while F.
graminearum has not been considered a problem in oats until the last years. The
main objective of the presented study was to learn more of the biology of F.
langsethiae. The experiment was designed to study under which environmental
conditions F. langsethiae spreads to new plants and within plants during the
vegetation period, and which of the plant developmental stages are most sensitive
to infection by F. langsethiae. An additional objective was to study how F.
langsethiae interacts and perform together with the two other common species
found in Sweden, F. graminearum and F. culmorum.
Analyses of plants reveal no detectable endophytic infection of F. langsethiae
suggesting it has an epiphytic life style. Its pattern of infection also confirms it
being a minor pathogen, since it did not cause early plant death, which, in
comparison, both F. graminearum and F. culmorum did. In addition, F.
langsethiae seem to hamper the infection of F. graminearum, either by direct
competition or by triggering the immune response in oats or a combination of the
two.
Keywords: Gibberella zeae, perithecia, ascospores
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