Level of seed infection of cultivated sorghum with fungi from genus Fusarium

Abstract

During the year of 2011, the level of fungi infection with the genus Fusarium was examined in seven genotypes of grain sorghum (Gold F1, A 28, B 28, Alba F1, A 73, B 73, Re 236) grown in six localities: Srbobran, Futog and four localities nearby Bački Petrovac (Bački Petrovac 1, 2, 3 and 4). The rate of seed infection with fungus Fusarium in the investigated period ranged from 0 to 8.5%. The infection did not occur in the genotype B73 (Bački Petrovac 1), while a low rate of infection of 0-3% was detected in the genotype B 28 (Srbobran). Medium rate of infection was recorded for the genotype A 28 (Srbobran) and A 28 (Futog) with 4.25% and for Gold F1 (Bački Petrovac 2) with 5.5%. High rate of infection was recorded for the genotype A 73 (Futog), A 73 (Bački Petrovac 2) (6.25%), Alba F1 (Bački Petrovac 2) (8%) and Re 236 (Futog) (8.5%). One isolate from each F. solani, F. graminearum, F. subglutinans and F. verticilliodes was selected for the pathogenicity investigation. Thirty plants were inoculated from each genotype of grain sorghum (varieties Alba F1 and Gold F1) and broomcorn (var. Reform and Prima). The spraying inoculation with the suspension of mycelium and conidia was performed when sorghum was at the end of blooming on June 19, 2012. The intensity of the infection on the sorghum panicles was reached in the phenophase of milky-wax maturity on July 8, 2012 and the scale of S h a r m a et al., (2010) was used. The symptoms of the artificial inoculation appeared only in the broomcorn. Among all isolates, the isolate of the species F. graminearum manifested the highest pathogenicity on the variety Reform with average score of 4.43 and on variety Prima with 4.17. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. III 46005: Genetical divergence, technological quality and storage of cereals and pseudocereals from organic production]

Keywords

• broomcorn
• Fusarium
• grain sorghum
• disease intensity score