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Trichoderma longibrachiatum and Trichoderma asperellum Confer Growth Promotion and Protection against Late Wilt Disease in the Field

Late wilt disease (LWD) of maize, caused by Magnaporthiopsis maydis, is considered a major threat to commercial fields in Israel, Egypt, Spain, and India. Today’s control methods include chemical and agronomical intervention but rely almost solely on resistant maize cultivars. In recent years, LWD r...

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Autores principales: Degani, Ofir, Rabinovitz, Onn, Becher, Paz, Gordani, Asaf, Chen, Assaf
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8229153/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34199413
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jof7060444
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author Degani, Ofir
Rabinovitz, Onn
Becher, Paz
Gordani, Asaf
Chen, Assaf
author_facet Degani, Ofir
Rabinovitz, Onn
Becher, Paz
Gordani, Asaf
Chen, Assaf
author_sort Degani, Ofir
collection PubMed
description Late wilt disease (LWD) of maize, caused by Magnaporthiopsis maydis, is considered a major threat to commercial fields in Israel, Egypt, Spain, and India. Today’s control methods include chemical and agronomical intervention but rely almost solely on resistant maize cultivars. In recent years, LWD research focused on eco-friendly biological approaches to restrain the pathogen. The current study conducted during two growing seasons explores the potential of three Trichoderma species as bioprotective treatments against LWD. These species excelled in preliminary assays performed previously under controlled conditions and were applied here in the field by directly adding them to each seed with the sowing. In the first field experiment, Trichoderma longibrachiatum successfully rescued the plants’ growth indices (weight and height) compared to T. asperelloides and the non-treated control. However, it had no positive effect on yield and disease progression. In the subsequent season, this Trichoderma species was tested against T. asperellum, an endophyte isolated from susceptible maize cultivar. This experiment was conducted during a rainy autumn season, which probably led to a weak disease burst. Under these conditions, the plants in all treatment groups were vivid and had similar growth progression and yields. Nevertheless, a close symptoms inspection revealed that the T. longibrachiatum treatment resulted in a two-fold reduction in the lower stem symptoms and a 1.4-fold reduction in the cob symptoms at the end of the seasons. T. asperellum achieved 1.6- and 1.3-fold improvement in these parameters, respectively. Quantitative Real-time PCR tracking of the pathogen in the host plants’ first internode supported the symptoms’ evaluation, with 3.1- and 4.9-fold lower M. maydis DNA levels in the two Trichoderma treatments. In order to induce LWD under the autumn’s less favorable conditions, some of the plots in each treatment were inoculated additionally, 20 days after sowing, by stabbing the lower stem section near the ground with a wooden toothpick dipped in M. maydis mycelia. This infection method overrides the Trichoderma roots protection and almost abolishes the biocontrol treatments’ protective achievements. This study suggests a biological Trichoderma-based protective layer that may have significant value in mild cases of LWD.
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spelling pubmed-82291532021-06-26 Trichoderma longibrachiatum and Trichoderma asperellum Confer Growth Promotion and Protection against Late Wilt Disease in the Field Degani, Ofir Rabinovitz, Onn Becher, Paz Gordani, Asaf Chen, Assaf J Fungi (Basel) Article Late wilt disease (LWD) of maize, caused by Magnaporthiopsis maydis, is considered a major threat to commercial fields in Israel, Egypt, Spain, and India. Today’s control methods include chemical and agronomical intervention but rely almost solely on resistant maize cultivars. In recent years, LWD research focused on eco-friendly biological approaches to restrain the pathogen. The current study conducted during two growing seasons explores the potential of three Trichoderma species as bioprotective treatments against LWD. These species excelled in preliminary assays performed previously under controlled conditions and were applied here in the field by directly adding them to each seed with the sowing. In the first field experiment, Trichoderma longibrachiatum successfully rescued the plants’ growth indices (weight and height) compared to T. asperelloides and the non-treated control. However, it had no positive effect on yield and disease progression. In the subsequent season, this Trichoderma species was tested against T. asperellum, an endophyte isolated from susceptible maize cultivar. This experiment was conducted during a rainy autumn season, which probably led to a weak disease burst. Under these conditions, the plants in all treatment groups were vivid and had similar growth progression and yields. Nevertheless, a close symptoms inspection revealed that the T. longibrachiatum treatment resulted in a two-fold reduction in the lower stem symptoms and a 1.4-fold reduction in the cob symptoms at the end of the seasons. T. asperellum achieved 1.6- and 1.3-fold improvement in these parameters, respectively. Quantitative Real-time PCR tracking of the pathogen in the host plants’ first internode supported the symptoms’ evaluation, with 3.1- and 4.9-fold lower M. maydis DNA levels in the two Trichoderma treatments. In order to induce LWD under the autumn’s less favorable conditions, some of the plots in each treatment were inoculated additionally, 20 days after sowing, by stabbing the lower stem section near the ground with a wooden toothpick dipped in M. maydis mycelia. This infection method overrides the Trichoderma roots protection and almost abolishes the biocontrol treatments’ protective achievements. This study suggests a biological Trichoderma-based protective layer that may have significant value in mild cases of LWD. MDPI 2021-06-02 /pmc/articles/PMC8229153/ /pubmed/34199413 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jof7060444 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Degani, Ofir
Rabinovitz, Onn
Becher, Paz
Gordani, Asaf
Chen, Assaf
Trichoderma longibrachiatum and Trichoderma asperellum Confer Growth Promotion and Protection against Late Wilt Disease in the Field
title Trichoderma longibrachiatum and Trichoderma asperellum Confer Growth Promotion and Protection against Late Wilt Disease in the Field
title_full Trichoderma longibrachiatum and Trichoderma asperellum Confer Growth Promotion and Protection against Late Wilt Disease in the Field
title_fullStr Trichoderma longibrachiatum and Trichoderma asperellum Confer Growth Promotion and Protection against Late Wilt Disease in the Field
title_full_unstemmed Trichoderma longibrachiatum and Trichoderma asperellum Confer Growth Promotion and Protection against Late Wilt Disease in the Field
title_short Trichoderma longibrachiatum and Trichoderma asperellum Confer Growth Promotion and Protection against Late Wilt Disease in the Field
title_sort trichoderma longibrachiatum and trichoderma asperellum confer growth promotion and protection against late wilt disease in the field
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8229153/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34199413
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jof7060444
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