Ear infection of winter wheat by Fusarium species and risk of mycotoxins occurrence.

摘要

Fusarium head blight (FHB) is perceived as a threat to wheat production. Besides the reduction of the yield potential of infected plants, the fungus contaminates kernels with different mycotoxins. Field experiments were conducted in Poland, in 2007 and 2008, to study the development of populations of FHB pathogens in the winter wheat cultivars Zyta and Finezja. In the first experiment, the dominating Fusarium culmorum pathogen was isolated from winter wheat ears with disease symptoms. The most aggressive isolates were used for inoculation of wheat in 2008. Colonization of ears by F. culmorum was much higher in 2007 than in 2008, possibly due to dry weather conditions during the flowering period. Only traces of F. culmorum on artificially inoculated plants and no other Fusarium species were detected in ears in 2008. Several used fungicides reduced significantly the levels of infection in both years, but significant correlation between the level of Fusarium infection and the decrease in yield was only in 2007.