Effect of Gliding Arc Plasma Jet on the Mycobiota and Deoxynivalenol Levels in Naturally Contaminated Barley Grains

Fusarium graminearum and Fusarium meridionale are primary contaminants of barley, capable of producing several mycotoxins, mainly type B trichothecenes and zearalenone. Cold plasma decontamination has been gaining prominence, seeking to control the fungal and mycotoxin contamination of food and feed and to improve product quality. To reach this objective, the present study was divided into two parts. In the first part, F. meridionale and F. graminearum strains were exposed to gliding arc plasma jet (GAPJ). Cell viability tests showed the inactivation of F. meridionale after 15-min treatment, whereas F. graminearum showed to be resistant. In the second part, barley grains were treated by GAPJ for 10, 20, and 30 min, demonstrating a reduction of about 2 log CFU/g of the barley's mycobiota, composed of yeasts, strains belonging to the F. graminearum species complex, Alternaria, and Aspergillus. A decrease in DON levels (up to 89%) was observed after exposure for 20 min. However, an increase in the toxin Deoxynivalenol-3-glucoside (D3G) was observed in barley grains, indicating a conversion of DON to D3G.

First report of Tobacco Fusarium Root Rot Caused by Fusarium meridionale in China

Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) was an important economic crop in China. A survey in Yunnan Province in the last several years showed that the incidence of tobacco root rot was 3 to 30%. In July 2021, root rot symptoms were observed with an average incidence of 5% on tobacco (cultivar Yunyan 87) in Dali (25.61° N, 100.27° E). Typical disease symptoms included plants stunted at early stages, brown-colored withering lower leaves and roots that became brown. Under high humidity conditions, symptoms of rot expanded in the roots, also the whole plant became wilted and stunted, and some plants ultimately died. Infected pieces of stem tissues and root were dissected and then sterilized with 2% NaOCl for 30 s, rinsed three times with sterile distilled water, and dried with sterilized filter paper. Three pieces were plated onto potato dextrose agar (PDA) for 3 days at 25°C with a 12-h light period. Colonies on PDA were characterized by white to pale yellow flocculent aerial mycelium, and a pink to red pigment in the agar. To induce sporulation, mycelium on PDA was transferred to carnation leaf agar (CLA) medium. After incubation for 7 days, a single spore was isolated from representative isolate 21DL16 for morphological and molecular analyses. Macroconidia observed on CLA were falcate, slightly curved, three to five septate, measured 33.1 to 53.7 × 3.2 to 4.6 μm (n=50), with a typical foot shaped basal cell. Morphological characteristics of the fungus were in agreement with the description of Fusarium graminearum (Leslie and Summerell 2006). For further identification, the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region rDNA, translation elongation factor 1ɑ (EF-1α) and RNA polymerase II second largest subunit (RPB2) gene were amplified and sequenced using primers ITS1/ITS4 (White et al. 1990), EF1/EF2 (O'Donnell et al. 2015) and RPB2-5F/RPB2-7cR (Reeb et al. 2004), respectively. Although the ITS sequence (GenBank accession no. OM392025) cannot distinguish F. meridionale from F. graminearum, combined phylogenetic analysis of the sequence of TEF1 (ON062055) and RPB2 (ON211932) clearly showed that the pathogen is F. meridionale that the sequences were 100% similarity, 0.0e-value and 100% query coverage to F. meridionale. Pathogenicity studies were conducted on six-leaf-stage tobacco seedlings cultivar Yunyan 87. A conidial suspension (1×105 spores/mL) was poured over the roots of tobacco seedlings. Three seedlings were treated with sterile water that served as controls. All 10 seedlings were maintained at 25°C at 70% relative humidity. After 5 days, the lower leaves showed symptoms of wilting and the roots of all inoculated seedlings become discolored, that were similar with the original symptoms, whereas the control seedlings did not develop symptoms. The fungus reisolated from the inoculated seedlings was identical to F. meridionale using the EF-1α gene sequence. To date, Fusarium root rot on tobacco in China was caused by F. oxysporium (Chen 2013). However, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of F. meridionale causing root rot on tobacco in China. Identification of F. meridionale as a root rot agent might provide important insight for disease management practices on tobacco caused by Fusarium species.

First report of Fusarium meridionale causing Fusarium head blight of wheat in Henan Province, China

Fusarium graminearum and F. asiaticum have been found as a major cause of Fusarium head blight (FHB) of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), especially in Henan Province of China (Zhang et al. 2014; Xu et al. 2021). In May 2021, a survey to determine the composition of Fusarium species infecting wheat heads was conducted in commercial fields in Henan. A total of 395 diseased spikes with premature whitening symptom were collected from 31 commercial fields in Henan. Symptomatic spikelets were excised, surface-sterilized for 10 s in 70% ethanol followed by 1 min in 3% sodium hypochlorite, rinsed three times with autoclaved distilled water, and then plated onto potato dextrose agar (PDA) medium. Isolated colonies that resembled Fusarium species were transferred to fresh PDA plates and purified using a single spore method. Species were identified based on sequence analysis of the translation elongation factor-1α (TEF) and trichothecene 3-Oacetyltransferase (Tri 101) gene (Proctor et al. 2009). The results indicated that F. graminearum (43.3%), F. asiaticum (47.8%), F. pseudograminearum (6.6%) were the main causal agents of FHB in Henan. However, nine isolates (2.3%) were found to be identical to F. meridionale by sequence comparison in GenBank, and eight isolates of which came from three fields with 1% to 2% diseased spikes near Reservoir Luhun (34.1255° N, 112.1111° E, altitude: 388 m above sea level), Songxian County of Henan. The isolates of F. meridionale were transferred onto carnation leaf agar (CLA) and incubated at 20℃ under black light blue illumination. Macroconidia were abundant, relatively slender, curved to almost straight, commonly six- to seven-septate, and 27.0 to 61.0 (average 44.0) μm × 3.2 to 6.8 (average 5.3) μm. Microconidia were not observed. The TEF sequences (Accession nos. OM460748 to OM460756) and the Tri 101 sequences (OM460759 to OM460767) of the nine isolates showed 99 to 100% similarity with the TEF and Tri 101 sequences of F. meridionale NRRL 28436 and NRRL 28723 (AF212435 and AF212436 (TEF); AF212582 and AF212683 (Tri 101)). To complete Koch's postulates, the pathogenicity of the fungus was tested by using the single floret inoculation method by injecting 20-μl conidial suspension (5 × 105 conidia per milliliter) into healthy inflorescences of wheat cultivar Bainong 207 at anthesis in the field. Another 30 healthy inflorescences were injected with sterile distilled water. The heads were covered with polyethylene bags that were removed after 2 days. Twenty days after inoculation, while control inflorescences were asymptomatic, the F. meridionale-inoculated inflorescences showed 12% bleached spikelets per spike. By using the methodology described above, the fungus was re-isolated from infected spikelets of inoculated wheat heads but not from the controls. Although F. meridionale has frequently been reported in association with Fusarium ear rot (FER) of maize in Chongqing City and Gansu Province (Zhang et al. 2014; Zhou et al. 2018), and rice FER in Sichuan Province (Dong et al. 2020), to our knowledge, this is the first report of F. meridionale from diseased wheat heads in Henan, China. Further investigation is needed to gain a better understanding of this species by collecting isolates from different cropping system in Henan, which maize-wheat and rice-wheat rotation fields have coexisted in the region.

Improved Whole-Genome Sequence of Fusarium meridionale, the Fungal Pathogen Causing Fusarium Head Blight in Rice

Members of the Fusarium graminearum species complex (FGSC) cause extensive yield losses in cereal production worldwide, and food safety concerns due to the accumulation of Fusarium toxins in infected grains. Among these pathogens, F. meridionale is responsible for Fusarium head blight of wheat and rice, ear and stalk rot of maize, and pod blight of soybean. Here, we present an improved genome assembly of F. meridionale strain SR5 isolated from rice in China based on PacBio long-read sequencing and Illumina short-read sequencing technology. The assembled genome of SR5 has a total size of 36.82 Mb, an N₅₀ scaffold length of 7.82 Mb, nine scaffolds, and encodes 12,409 predicted genes. These high-quality data expand FGSC genomic resources and provide a valuable resource for better understanding their genetic diversity and the molecular basis of pathogenesis, which will facilitate the development of an effective control strategy.[Formula: see text] Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.

Effect of water activity and temperature on growth and trichothecene production by Fusarium meridionale

Fusarium meridionale has been frequently isolated from soybean in Argentina and showed similar pathogenicity as F. graminearum sensu stricto. However, no data on their growth and mycotoxin production under different environmental conditions are yet available. The aims of this study were: to determine the effect of temperature, water activity (aW) and strain on growth of F. meridionale and to evaluate deoxynivalenol (DON) and nivalenol (NIV) production in a soybean based medium. The results showed that optimal conditions for F. meridionale growth were at 25 °C and 0.98-0.99 aW. Deoxynivalenol production was favored at 25 °C and 0.96 aW while NIV production was strain-dependent, being 30 °C and 0.98 aW optimal conditions for F. meridionale B2300 strain and 20 °C and 0.98 aW for F. meridionale F5043 and F. meridionale 5048 strains. These conditions are similar to those observed at pre-harvest stage in soybean crop, thus control strategies need to be considered to reduce the risk of the occurrence of DON and NIV in harvested grains.

Identification and trichothecene genotypes of Fusarium graminearum species complex from wheat in Taiwan

BACKGROUND

Fusarium head blight (FHB) of wheat caused by Fusarium graminearum species complex (FGSC) is a devastating disease worldwide. The pathogens not only reduce the yield of wheat, but also impact the quality of wheat by contamination with trichothecene mycotoxins. A systematic investigation on the pathogens of FHB in Taiwan is lacking. Here, molecular and morphological approaches were used to identify species of the Taiwanese FGSC isolates and determine their trichothecene genotypes.

RESULTS

In this study, a total of 195 isolates of FGSC from diseased wheat were collected from 8 areas of northern and central Taiwan. All isolates were subjected to seedling inoculation for verification of pathogenicity. The pathogenic isolates were genetically characterized by sequence characterized amplified region (SCAR), PCR- restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP), phylogenetic analysis and fixed nucleotides to clarify their phylogenetic species, and by PCR assays of TRI genes to determine trichothecene genotypes. They were identified as F. asiaticum, F. graminearum sensu stricto, F. meridionale and an unknown species. Isolates of F. asiaticum were the major causal agents (98%) in this investigated population and were comprised of SCAR type 5 (75%), SCAR type 4 (21%) and SCAR type 3 (2%). Their trichothecene genotypes were either 15-acetyl-deoxynivalenol (15-ADON) (83%) or nivalenol (NIV) genotype (17%). These genetic characterizations indicated that F. asiaticum (15-ADON SCAR type 5) accounts for 60% of this Taiwanese population. Virulence assay on wheat heads indicated virulence of F. asiaticum isolates in subpopulations divided by SCAR types or trichothecene genotypes were comparable, suggesting other factors influence the unequal subpopulation sizes.

CONCLUSIONS

This is the first study that FGSC isolates in Taiwan were systematically collected and characterized. In addition to F. graminearum sensu stricto and F. meridionale, F. asiaticum with 15-ADON genotype was identified as the predominate species in Taiwan. In contrast to Chinese and Japanese populations that F. asiaticum isolates were typically of 3-ADON or NIV genotype, the predominate 15-ADON genotype in Taiwanese population was unique among F. asiaticum populations and represented the southernmost 15-ADON genotype population in East Asia.