Population diversity of Fusarium on the main cereals in China
Jie Feng: Institute of Plant Protection
<div>Wheat, maize and rice are the most important cereals in China. They are all threatened by toxigenic <em>Fusarium</em>, which caused yield loss and mycotoxin contamination. Therefore the knowledge of diversity of <em>Fusarium</em> population on different crops and regions is important for management of the disease and mycotoxin contamination. In recent years, we did a large-scale survey of <em>Fusarium</em> population diversity on wheat, maize and rice in the main grain-producing areas. Samples including head blight, and crown rot of wheat, ear rot and stalk rot of maize and perithecia from rice and maize stubble were collected. More than 2000 <em>Fusarium</em> isolates were isolated and the species and chemotype were identified. <em>F. graminearum</em> and <em>F. asiaticum</em> are the main causal agent of wheat head blight and <em>F. pseudograminearum</em> is responsible for wheat crown rot. The maize population showed much higher diversity than wheat at species level. <em>F. graminearum</em> with 15ADON chemotype can circulate between maize and wheat in Northern China. <em>F. boothii </em>is only found on maize and virulence tests confirmed its different fitness to the hosts. In Southern China, <em>F. asiaticum </em>is predominant on both wheat and rice stubble, which revealed rice stubble is the main media for their overwintering. Significant more NIV producers are observed on rice than wheat in the same area, indicating the rice preference of NIV population. In agreement with this, predominant NIV chemotype were also identified in Hunan and Fujian Province, where rice is the main crop and wheat is absent.</div>
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