First Report of Fusarium sibiricum Causing Fusarium Head Blight of Wheat in China

HomePlant DiseaseVol. 107, No. 5First Report of Fusarium sibiricum Causing Fusarium Head Blight of Wheat in China PreviousNext DISEASE NOTE OPENOpen Access licenseFirst Report of Fusarium sibiricum Causing Fusarium Head Blight of Wheat in ChinaShuangchao Wang, Pallab Bhattacharjee, Tatiana Gagkaeva, Thuzar Moe, Yafei Wang, Shaojian Ruan, and Lihua GuoShuangchao Wanghttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-4694-9591State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China, Pallab Bhattacharjeehttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-4739-0128State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China, Tatiana GagkaevaLaboratory of Mycology and Phytopathology, All-Russian Institute of Plant Protection, St. Petersburg, Pushkin 196608, Russia, Thuzar MoeState Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China, Yafei WangState Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China, Shaojian RuanState Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China, and Lihua Guo†Corresponding author: L. Guo; E-mail Address: [email protected]State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, ChinaAffiliationsAuthors and Affiliations Shuangchao Wang1 Pallab Bhattacharjee1 Tatiana Gagkaeva2 Thuzar Moe1 Yafei Wang1 Shaojian Ruan1 Lihua Guo1 † 1State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China 2Laboratory of Mycology and Phytopathology, All-Russian Institute of Plant Protection, St. Petersburg, Pushkin 196608, Russia Published Online:21 Apr 2023https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-07-22-1620-PDNAboutSectionsPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailWechat Fusarium head blight (FHB), predominately caused by Fusarium graminearum, is a devastating disease that threatens wheat and small grain cereals production in China and worldwide. FHB symptoms on wheat start from the flowering stage and proceed to brown and dry spikelets. In April 2012, wheat spikelets showing clear FHB symptoms were collected from fields in Anhui, China (31.33°N; 116.71°E). Small pieces of diseased tissue from symptomatic glumes were soaked in 70% ethanol for 2 min and 1% sodium hypochlorite for 3 min, followed by three rinses with sterile distilled water (Gupta et al. 2019). The surface-sterilized pieces were placed onto potato dextrose agar (PDA) medium incubated at 25°C in the dark. Five days after plating, we recovered a fungal strain and obtained its single spore isolate, named strain AH32. The internal transcribed spacer region of the ribosomal DNA (ITS) and eukaryotic translation elongation factor-1 alpha gene (TEF) fragments were amplified from AH32 and the subsequent PCR products were sequenced (Dong et al. 2020). The sequences of ITS and TEF (GenBank accession nos. MN841912, MN839441) matched Fusarium sibiricum strain NRRL 53422 (GenBank accession no. FJ768702.1, 503 base pairs matching and 100% identity) and Fusarium langsethiae isolate 0420 (GenBank accession no. MG274309.1, 680 base pairs matching and 100% identity). To further confirm the species of strain AH32, the F. sibiricum-specific primer pair FsporF1/LanspoR1 gave a positive amplification reaction with strain AH32. However, a negative reaction was obtained with the F. langsethiae-specific primer pair FlangF3/LanspoR1 (Yli-Mattila et al. 2015). Thus, strain AH32 was eventually identified as F. sibiricum rather than F. langsethiae. Strain AH32 was cultivated in 9-cm Petri dishes containing 20 ml of PDA at 25°C in complete darkness to diagnose colony color, odor, growth rate, and spore production. The aerial mycelium was powdery white, sparse and light yellow on PDA. The height of the mycelium was on average 1 to 2.7 mm with no odor. This isolate had a radial growth rate of 7 to 8 mm/day. PDA and liquid carboxymethyl cellulose medium were used to test spore production. F. sibiricum strain AH32 produced napiform or globose conidia on PDA. The zero-septate globose conidia were 6.2 × 5.3 μm on average. To confirm pathogenicity, the glumes of wheat spikelets at flowering stage were inoculated with agar discs with mycelia cultured for 3 days on PDA. The same diameter PDA discs were used in a control inoculation. All inoculated wheat heads were grown at about 25°C in field conditions. After 18 days, the inoculated and nearby spikelets turned brown and dry, showing FHB symptoms, whereas the control wheat heads remained asymptomatic. The morphology of the reisolated fungus on PDA was identical to that of the original cultures and species-specific primers described above were used, confirming that the reisolated strains was F. sibiricum. To our knowledge, this is the first report of F. sibiricum causing FHB on wheat in China. This finding would provide valuable information for F. sibiricum spread in Asia and management of this disease.The author(s) declare no conflict of interest.References:Dong, F., et al. 2020. Plant Dis. 104:2726. https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-11-19-2487-PDN Link, ISI, Google ScholarGupta, D. R., et al. 2019. Plant Dis. 103:580. https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-08-18-1461-PDN Link, Google ScholarYli-Mattila, T., et al. 2015. J. Plant Pathol. 97:183. ISI, Google ScholarS.-C. Wang and P. Bhattacharjee contributed equally to this work.Funding: This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31901939) and National Key R&D Program of China (2019YFD1002000).The author(s) declare no conflict of interest.DetailsFiguresLiterature CitedRelated Vol. 107, No. 5 May 2023SubscribeISSN:0191-2917e-ISSN:1943-7692 Download Metrics Article History Issue Date: 31 May 2023Published: 21 Apr 2023Accepted: 29 Nov 2022 Page: 1622 Information© 2023 The American Phytopathological SocietyFundingNational Natural Science Foundation of ChinaGrant/Award Number: 31901939National Key R&D Program of ChinaGrant/Award Number: 2019YFD1002000KeywordsChinafungal diseasesFusarium head blightFusarium sibiricumpathogenicityThe author(s) declare no conflict of interest.PDF download