Book with abstracts from the COST Action 0905 meeting in ... - UMB

CHANGES IN ELEMENT COMPOSITION IN FUSARIUM–
INFECTED WHEAT GENOTYPES
László Erdei 1 , Andrea Pető 1 , Viktorija Krastinyté 2 , Neringa Kisielyté 2 , Sorina Popescu 3 ,
Jolán Csiszár 1
1 Department of Plant Biology, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary;
2 Gediminas Technical University, Vilnius, Lithuania;
3 Banat University for Agricultural Sciences, Timisoara, Romania
Keywords: Fusarium, micro-and macroelements, wheat genotypes
Wheat quality and consumer safety is threatened by Fusarium Head Blight caused by
among others F. culmorum and F. graminearum. Infected grains contain Fusarium toxins,
mainly deoxynivalenol (DON), nivalenol, but there are some minor components of still
unknown physiological effects.
Our hypothesis is that Fusarium-infection influences physiological, biochemical and
membrane-transport characteristics of the plant resulting in altered mineral composition in
the grain.
Plant samples were collected from artificially Fusarium-infected resistant and sensitive
wheat genotypes inoculated with F.culmorum and F. graminearum. After appearance of
symptoms, samples of flag leaves, culm, green ear, and after harvest chaff and grain were
wet digested and their Cu, Mn, Fe, Zn and K, Ca, Mg concentrations were determined.
Results show that gradients of element concentrations are characteristic for the element in
question: from flag leaf to grain Cu, Mn, Fe concentrations are decreasing, Zn accumulates
in the grain while Ca in the chaff, and K accumulates in the culm tissue. In some cases
Fusarium-infection influenced element concentrations, mainly for Zn, K and Mg.
Our project HURO/0901/147/2.2.2 is implemented under the Hungary-Romania Crossborder
Co-operation Programme 2007-2013 co-financed by the EU ERDF. The content of
this abstract does not necessarily represent the official position of the European Union.