Open Access

ARTICLE

Aggressiveness Assessment of Two Fusarium spp. on Durum Wheat Grain Coleoptiles under Controlled Conditions

Salah Hadjout^1,2,*, Mohamed Zouidi¹, Houcine Bougrine¹, Abdeldjalil Belkendil¹, Amer Zeghmar¹, Walid Ouaret³, Walid Soufan⁴, Fathi Abdellatif Belhouadjeb⁵

1 Centre de Recherche en Aménagement du Territoire (CRAT), Campus Zouaghi Slimane, Route de Ain el Bey, Constantine, 25000, Algérie
2 Ecole Nationale Supérieure Agronomique (ENSA), Alger, 16200, Algérie
3 Department of Geographical Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
4 Plant Production Department, College of Food and Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia
5 Centre de Recherche en Agropastoralisme (CRAPast), Djelfa, 17000, Algérie

* Corresponding Author: Salah Hadjout. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Plant-Microbiome Interactions: Unlocking the Conversation)

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany 2024, 93(11), 2983-2992. https://doi.org/10.32604/phyton.2024.056982

Received 04 August 2024; Accepted 21 October 2024; Issue published 30 November 2024

Abstract

Fusarium head blight (FHB) is a disease caused by several Fusarium species, notably, F. culmorum and F. graminearum. These pathogens adversely affect the technological and sanitary qualities of cereal grains, particularly durum wheat. Under favorable environmental conditions and in susceptible varieties, these Fusarium species can significantly reduce both the quantity and quality of crops. This study evaluated the pathogenicity of the two Fusarium species (FC2006 and FG2008) in the growth of durum wheat coleoptiles. The plant material included four commercially grown parental varieties (G9, G10, G11, G12) and eight breeding lines (G1, G2, G3, G4, G5, G6, G7, G8). In vitro tests revealed that both Fusarium species significantly reduced the coleoptile growth across the studied varieties and lines (p ≤ 0.001). The control test had an average coleoptile length of 37.87 mm. In contrast, seeds inoculated with FC2006 had an average length of 0.62 mm, and those inoculated with FG2008 had only 0.064 mm. Although there was a slight difference in aggressiveness between the two species, it was not statistically significant (p > 0.05). Some variability was also noted in the responses of the durum wheat varieties and lines. The G8 genotype showed remarkable behavior in both isolates, with an average length of 1.83 mm for FC2006 and 0.4 mm for FG2008. The other genotypes showed total inhibition of coleoptile growth (0 mm). These findings highlight the importance of conducting further research on the defense mechanisms of durum wheat against Fusarium and assessing the local varieties’ pathogenicity to better explore the interactions between these pathogens and durum wheat genotypes under in vitro conditions.

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