Article
Version 1
Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed
Pathogenicity of Trichoderma afroharzianum in Cereal Crops
Version 1
: Received: 21 June 2023 / Approved: 22 June 2023 / Online: 22 June 2023 (12:07:54 CEST)
A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.
Pfordt, A.; Gaumann, P.; von Tiedemann, A. Pathogenicity of Trichoderma afroharzianum in Cereal Crops. Pathogens 2023, 12, 936. Pfordt, A.; Gaumann, P.; von Tiedemann, A. Pathogenicity of Trichoderma afroharzianum in Cereal Crops. Pathogens 2023, 12, 936.
Abstract
Trichoderma sp. is a fungus in the genus Trichoderma, ubiquitous in soils, on plant roots and in decaying plant residues. Due to its competitiveness and mycoparasitic potential against other microorganisms, particular strains of Trichoderma sp. are used in agriculture as biocontrol agents against plant pathogens. However, Trichoderma afroharzianum. has been recently reported as a pathogen causing ear rot disease on maize in Germany, France and Italy leading to massive infections on maize cobs. This raised the question, whether and to what extend Trichoderma can infect other cereal crops than maize and cause disease symptoms and yield losses. To address this question, two varieties of wheat, barley and sorghum millet were grown in the greenhouse and artificially inoculated with T. afroharzianum by both spray and point inoculation at the time of flowering. Disease severity was scored weekly and thousand-kernel weight and colonization rate were determined after harvest. As early as 14 days after inoculation, the first visual symptoms appeared on wheat and barley as tan or brown discoloration of the base of a floret within the spikelets. After spray inoculation, clear discolorations of the entire ear were seen, while point inoculation only showed symptoms at the injection site and above. No visible symptoms were observed on sorghum millet. The colonization rate on wheat and barley grains was significantly increased compared to the control while thousand kernel weights (TKW) were significantly reduced. No differences in colonization rate and TKW compared to the control were observed in sorghum. This is the first report of Trichoderma afroharzianum infecting wheat and barley, causing diseases symptoms and significantly reducing thousand-kernel weights.
Keywords
Trichoderma; maize; wheat; barley; host range
Subject
Biology and Life Sciences, Agricultural Science and Agronomy
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Comments (0)
We encourage comments and feedback from a broad range of readers. See criteria for comments and our Diversity statement.
Leave a public commentSend a private comment to the author(s)
* All users must log in before leaving a comment
