Mineral nutrient content of infected plants and allied soils provide insight into wheat blast epidemics

Md Saljar Rahman Chowdhury; Md Arifur Rahman; Kamrun Nahar; Khondoker M G Dastogeer; Islam Hamim; K M Mohiuddin

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e08966

Mineral nutrient content of infected plants and allied soils provide insight into wheat blast epidemics

Heliyon. 2022 Feb 19;8(2):e08966. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e08966. eCollection 2022 Feb.

Authors

Md Saljar Rahman Chowdhury¹, Md Arifur Rahman², Kamrun Nahar¹, Khondoker M G Dastogeer³, Islam Hamim^{3

4}, K M Mohiuddin¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Agricultural Chemistry, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh 2202, Bangladesh.
² Department of Agricultural Chemistry, Khulna Agricultural University, Khulna, Bangladesh.
³ Department of Plant Pathology, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh 2202, Bangladesh.
⁴ Laboratory of Plant Pathology, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Japan.

Abstract

Wheat is the second-largest cereal crop in Bangladesh and plays an essential role in ensuring the country's food security. Since 2016, there has been a severe epidemic of wheat blast disease in Bangladesh. This research investigated the nutritional context of wheat blast epidemics by analyzing the infected plants and allied soils. We collected blast-infected wheat plants and allied soil samples from six different severely infected regions of the Meherpur district situated in the western part of Bangladesh. The incidence and severity of wheat blast disease in the sampling fields ranged from 84.78 - 95.11% and 82.06-92.19%, respectively. Among the investigated mineral nutrients in plant samples, the concentrations of sulfur (S), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), iron (Fe) and manganese (Mn) were within the acceptable range of the reference values. In contrast, 50% of the plant samples had insufficient phosphorus (P) concentrations, while others were within the critical range. The potassium (K) and copper (Cu) concentrations in more than 33.5% of plants were within the deficient range. The Si concentrations in half of the tested plant samples were below the acceptable level. However, the boron (B) concentration of around 50% of samples was within the toxic range. The total K, Ca, Zn, Fe, Mn, and Cu concentrations of the soils were lower than the reference values. Based on the interpretation of the available soil test values, the concentrations of S, Fe, Mn, and B in most samples were very low. The concentrations of available P, K, Ca, Mg, Zn and Cu in soil samples were higher than the critical limit. There was a negative relationship between K, S, Ca, Mg, Na and Si concentrations with blast incidence and severity. Therefore, this research suggests that certain plant nutrients such as P, K, Cu, B and Si play a vital role in the wheat blast disease epidemic.

Keywords: Bangladesh; Concentration; Mineral nutrition; Plant nutrients; Wheat blast.