Comparative Pathogenicity of Fusarium graminearum Isolates from Wheat Kernels in Korea

Abstract

Fusarium head blight (FHB) caused by Fusarium species is a major disease of wheat and barley around the world. FHB causes yield reductions and contamination of grains with trichothecene mycotoxins including; nivalenol (NIV), deoxynivalenol (DON), 3-acetyldeoxynivalenol (3-ADON), and 15-acetylde-oxynivalenol (15-ADON). The objectives of this study were to identify strains of F. graminearum isolated in Korea from 2012-harvested wheat grain and to test the pathogenicity of these NIV- and DON-producing isolates. Three hundred and four samples of wheat grain, harvested in 2012 in Chungnam, Chungbuk, Gyeongnam, Jeonbuk, Jeonnam, and Gangwon provinces were collected. We recovered 44 isolates from the 304 samples, based on the PCR amplification of internal transcribed spacer (ITS) rRNA region and sequencing. Our findings indicate that F. asiaticum was the predominant (95% of all isolates) species in Korea. We recovered both F. asiaticum and F. graminearum from samples collected in Chungnam province. Of the 44 isolates recovered, 36 isolates had a NIV genotype while 8 isolates belonged to the DON genotype (3-ADON and 15-ADON). In order to characterize the pathogenicity of the strains collected, disease severity was assessed visually on various greenhouse-grown wheat cultivars inoculated using both NIV- and DON-producing isolates. Our results suggest that Korean F. graminearum isolates from wheat belong to F. asiaticum producing NIV, and both F. graminearum and F. asiaticum are not significantly different on virulence in wheat cultivars.

Keywords: Fusarium graminearum; deoxynivalenol (DON); nivalenol (NIV).

Fig. 1

PCR amplification patterns of the regions of Tri13 gene from DON- and NIV-producing F. graminearum genotypes. Lane M is the 100 bp DNA ladder. Lanes 6, 9, 12, 13, 29, 35, 41, and 42 have bands at 500–600 bp indicative of DON chemotypes, while the other lanes have bands at 760 bp indicative of NIV chemotypes.

Fig. 2

FHB severity for thirty-two wheat cultivars, inoculated with two Fusarium isolates (CNW-6: a DON chemotype of F. graminearum and JNW-1: a NIV chemotype of F. asiaticum) in the greenhouse. Asterisks (*) indicate a significance difference, at the 0.05 level, between the FHB severities for the two isolates tested.

Fig. 3

Correlation of the Fusarium head blight severity caused by a F. graminearum isolate CNW-6 (DON chemotype) and F. asiaticum, isolate JNW-1 (NIV chemotype) on 32 wheat cultivars.